Peer-to-Peer energy trading in a microgrid based on iterative double auction and blockchain

Abstract

The research and construction of microgrids provide the possibility of effective use of distributed energy resources (DERs), where electricity is generated and consumed locally. Peer-to-Peer (P2P) energy trading in microgrids helps to create a totally competitive and autonomous market and brings benefits to both the market participants and utility companies. A P2P energy trading model based on iterative double auction and blockchain is proposed in this paper. The iterative double auction mechanism is used to elicit hidden information from all participants to achieve maximum social welfare, where buyers and sellers adjust quotes to better individual profits according to previous individual transaction volumes and the market equilibrium price, without much knowledge about the market itself. The optimal allocation of the energy and market equilibrium is obtained and verified. The autonomous realization of this P2P energy trading model on blockchain is further presented and discussed. Numerical examples are used to illustrate the feasibility and validity of the proposed iterative double auction algorithm. It is found that the average hourly social welfare for the proposed iterative double auction algorithm is − $29.06, which is a 22.3% increase over the zero-intelligence strategy ( − $37.41).