Energy Buyers Research Articles

Categorical claims about voluntary renewable energy actions are not supported by categorical evidence

Abstract Voluntary renewable energy procurement by retail electricity customers could play a critical role in achieving clean energy objectives. Research could optimize that role by providing accurate and nuanced information about how different voluntary actions most effectively drive renewable energy deployment. Recent literature has made categorical assertions that broad classes of voluntary actions are weakly or not impactful. This Perspective argues that these categorical assertions are not supported by equally categorical evidence. A closer examination shows the evidence is less conclusive and less generalizable than stakeholders may presume. Voluntary renewable energy buyers would benefit from more nuanced analysis of the impacts of different energy procurement actions across distinct contexts.

Accelerating power grid interconnectivity in Southeast Asia: a private sector perspective

Abstract Integrating the power systems between member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) can facilitate economic growth for the region and enable businesses to cost-effectively procure reliable, clean electricity. As corporations strengthen their clean energy commitments, the grid becomes an important enabler of power sector emissions reductions as well as economic development. This paper offers perspectives from the Asia Clean Energy Coalition (ACEC) on the importance of renewing the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the ASEAN Power Grid, focusing on accelerated implementation to expand multilateral power trade and cross-border grid interconnections. ACEC consists of clean energy buyers, sellers, and financiers that can drive economic growth. It supports strengthening the ASEAN Power Grid MOU to recognise the importance of holistic regional grid planning, prioritising interconnectors that scale up clean energy, harmonising regulatory and technical frameworks, and making data accessible to facilitate multilateral power trade and clean energy tracking.

Analysis of energy poverty in the Republic of Croatia

For a long time, energy has been a fundamental element of human growth and development. However, despite all technological progress and information development, many people in the world still do not have consistent access to at least one form of energy. This is where the concept of energy poverty appears. Energy poverty is generally defined as a situation in which households do not have enough disposable income to pay the bills for the energy needed in their household. The main factors that influence the appearance of energy poverty are primarily insufficient household incomes, the energy prices and their availability in a particular area, and the quality of housing units. This paper tries to show what the situation is in the Republic of Croatia and how to approach solving this problem. In the Republic of Croatia, this problem is tried to be solved by defining the vulnerable energy buyers, which places energy poverty in social policy, and accordingly, measures are most often implemented in the form of financial benefits (it is equated with energy poverty). What is missing here is the important connection between energy and social policy.

Blockchain-Based Joint Auction Model for Distributed Energy in Industrial Park Microgrids

To address the centralized trading demand within industrial parks and the scattered peer-to-peer trading demand outside industrial parks, this paper proposes a blockchain-based joint auction architecture for distributed energy in microgrids inside and outside industrial parks. By combining blockchain technology and auction theory, the architecture integrates the physical energy transactions within industrial parks with the distributed transactions in external microgrids to meet the centralized trading demand within industrial parks and the scattered peer-to-peer trading demand outside industrial parks, optimizing resource allocation and improving system resilience. In the microgrid auction mechanism for industrial parks, considering distributed energy providers (sellers) and distributed energy buyers, an auction mechanism with power transmission distance, average electricity price, and enterprise nature as its main attributes was constructed to maximize social welfare, realizing efficient energy flow in a multi-microgrid environment and enabling coordinated mutual benefits for producers and consumers within the region. Finally, a case study was conducted on the joint auction mechanism for microgrids inside and outside industrial parks, including the impacts of market dynamics and user preferences on electricity prices using different trading methods, the computational results using different trading matching methods (comparing single-attribute and multi-attribute methods), and multi-dimensional verification of user satisfaction with peer-to-peer transactions in a blockchain environment. The effectiveness of the joint trading between physical energy transactions within industrial parks and external microgrids was demonstrated, which could efficiently coordinate energy allocation inside and outside the parks and reduce the cost of energy configuration.

Applying the Financial Diagnosis Indicators on an Entity Manufacturing Energy Resources Versus on an Entity Purchasing Energy Resources for Trading Purposes, in the Context of the Energy Crisis

Considering the current context of the economy caused by the onset of the energy crisis, through the continuous increase in the prices of natural gas, and implicitly of electricity, during 2021, and its deepening due to the war in Ukraine, at the level of 2022, which affected especially the financial situation of consumers of household energy products, but also of non-household ones, it is important to identify how electricity and natural gas suppliers on the Romanian market were also affected financially. For this purpose, we should take into account the fact that on the market there are both suppliers who produce their energy resources by exploiting the underground resources and their own hydroelectric plants, but also suppliers who purchase wholesale electricity and natural gas to supply energy to final consumers, which can be analyzed based on the implementation of indicators of the financial diagnosis concerning the tax statements. Thus, throughout this article, we aimed to present the individual analysis of the application of indicators used in the financial diagnosis on the consolidated financial statement of Romgaz SA, as a representative of the energy producers and distributors category, and Electrica SA, as a representative of the energy buyers category on the market, with the aim of supplying the consumers, at the level of the first semester of 2022. We made a comparative analysis of the results of the two as well, with the aim of identifying the most financially vulnerable category in the fight against the energy crisis.

Distributivni učinci ukidanja »socijalno motiviranih« sniženih stopa PDV-a radi povećanja izdašnosti i obuhvata ciljanih transfera: mikrosimulacijska analiza za Hrvatsku

Many countries, including Croatia, support households in need not only through social transfers, but also through ‘socially motivated’ reduced VAT rates for goods such as food. These measures are also useful to those who are richer, so the question arises whether it is more desirable to increase social benefits that target low-income housholds. This paper analyses distributive effects of a hypothetical reform of the Croatian system of taxation and transfers which includes: (a) abolition of socially motivated reduced VAT rates; (b) increase of generosity and the number of the users of guaranteed minimum benefit and the users of allowance for vulnerable energy buyers. The reform is designed to be virtually neutral fiscally in the sense that almost all additional VAT is spent on the increase of guaranteed minimum benefit and allowance for vulnerable energy buyers. Results of the analysis conducted by a detailed microsimulational model of taxation and transers that uses the data from EU-SILC and the Survey on household consumption show that the reform reduces poverty and inequality based on income after taxation and transfers, in spite of the increase of the regressivity of VAT and the decrease of the progressivity of the guaranted minimum benefit and allowance for vulnerable energy buyers. Key words: VAT, social benefits, microsimulations, inequalities, poverty, reform

Decision-Making Processes of Renewable Energy Consumers Compared to Other Categories of Ecological Products

In the scientific discourse on consumption, increasingly more attention is being paid to sustainable development. Regarding the fact that not only various types of enterprises, but also consumers contribute to the excessive consumption of natural resources, it is of crucial importance to reduce the knowledge gap in the field of sustainable consumer behavior and decision-making processes related to the choice of organic products. The paper aims to present the decision-making processes of Polish consumers of renewable energy against the background of other categories of ecological products. Special attention is paid to the extent in which the offer is adjusted to the needs of consumers of renewable energy in Poland, compared to other categories of ecological products. The paper also shows the perception of the consumer of ecological products by buyers of renewable energy and by people who do not buy ecological products. The paper is based on a literature review and the results of a quantitative empirical study. The quantitative research was performed on a nationwide sample of 1032 people, among whom 509 people bought an organic product in the last 3 months, and 523 people did not purchase such a product during this period. The analysis of the results allows us to conclude that in the case of renewable energy, factors such as price, quality and the producer’s certification play a crucial role in the decision-making processes of Polish consumers. The hierarchy of criteria considered in the decision-making process related to the purchase of renewable energy and equipment enabling the use of renewable energy sources is quite similar to the one observed when purchasing electric cars. At the same time, it should be noted that almost every second person purchasing renewable energy compares many offers and spends a relatively long time contemplating their choice.

Multi-objective energy procurement strategy of electricity retail companies based on normalized normal constraint methodology

The electricity retail market provides a marketplace for domestic consumers and retailers to buy and sell electricity in a competitive environment. Permitting final consumers to choose electricity retailers promotes suppliers’ pluralism and clients’ freedom, which leads to improvements in the quality of electricity retailing service. The main aim of a retailer and consumers is profit maximization, which highly depends on retail-selling price. Retailer’s profit may be explicitly reduced by decreasing retail selling-price or implicitly reduced by increasing retail selling-price as increasing these prices may decrease clients’ consumption. Accordingly, the retail selling-price, retailer energy procurement strategy, and clients’ consumption should be simultaneously analyzed from the viewpoints of retailer and clients. In this paper, a multi-objective optimization problem is introduced to obtain the retailer’s energy procurement strategy in terms of the profits of energy buyers and sellers. Moreover, the normalized normal constraint method as a proficient multi-objective optimization technique is utilized to solve the proposed multi-objective optimization problem determining the retailers’ energy procurement strategy and retail selling-prices. Since the wholesale energy price is a highly volatile uncertainty source affecting the retailer’s profit, the point estimate method is utilized to characterize the uncertainty of the wholesale energy price. Simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed non-deterministic multi-objective optimization problem.

Application of edge computing and cloud service data system for doctors' psychological reconstruction after the epidemic

In response to the problems that the new crown pneumonia epidemic may bring to doctors in schools of Chinese medicine, such as information overload, traumatic stress, changes in mentality, crisis of trust, safety when going abroad, and employment choices, explain from the perspective of medical teachers in Chinese medicine schools. The understanding of the epidemic and the major events during the epidemic, combined with the experience of the psychological impact of the past epidemic on the doctors in the school, to highlight the outstanding contributions of medical staff in the fight against the epidemic, and to emphasize the strong leadership of the party and the unity of the people during the fight against the epidemic. The huge role played by Chinese medicine in the fight against the epidemic is the principle. In recent years, cloud computing technology has been continuously developed and improved. Traditional infrastructure as a service has been unable to meet users' needs for cloud computing delivery capabilities. They hope that more and more traditional IT software will be delivered in the form of cloud services. This paper mainly studies the utility optimization and stable matching strategy of UDRN based on EH and limited character input, divides the nodes into multiple clusters, and implements the utility optimization strategy within the clusters. Model users and relays as energy buyers and energy sellers. First, when users choose relays as their candidates, the golden section method is used to obtain the best relay power to maximize user utility. Secondly, based on the principle of maximizing the utility of matching, a mutual preference matrix between users and relays is established. Finally, based on the mutual preference matrix, an improved UDRN stable matching algorithm is proposed through the less complex GS algorithm. This algorithm will play a great role in the psychological reconstruction of doctors after the epidemic.

Corporate “green gold”: State policy implications for wind and solar energy buyers

Renewable energy (RE) is “green gold” for corporate energy buyers, and big companies have been using their influence and scale to advocate for state policies that will make it easier to buy RE. For most companies, however, getting to 100% RE is still a long slog through the current policy landscape. With that in mind, this article highlights policy implications at the state level that can advance or impede corporate RE energy buying. The article also provides case studies based on four states whose varying policies create different opportunities for companies to buy RE. The goal is to demonstrate the potency of state energy policy and to recommend shifts in the policy landscape so companies can meet their RE targets.

The Power of Collaboration: How U.S. Cities and Corporations Can Work Together to Advance Renewable Energy

Large energy users with renewable energy targets—like cities and corporations—face technical, policy, and market barriers when procuring renewables for their own operations and when attempting to expand access to renewables for other energy users. Municipal-corporate collaborations can remove these barriers and advance renewable electricity generation and use across the United States. Amplifying, enhancing, and scaling these efforts can help accelerate the clean energy transition. To date, municipal and corporate renewable energy buyers have partnered on education and outreach efforts, joint procurement of renewable electricity, collaborative engagement to remove market barriers, and equitable deployment of renewables within communities. These collaborations demonstrate civic and climate leadership and yield a variety of benefits, including increased economies of scale, reduced costs and material risk, positive publicity, equitable communitywide access to renewables, and more rapid progress toward meeting individual and shared climate and energy targets. Collaborations between municipal and corporate renewable energy buyers can add complexity to project implementation but can also be substantially more impactful than one entity working alone, for example, by increasing the size of or participation in a deal. For success, they require initial outreach and discussions; alignment on goals, roles, and responsibilities; adequate funding and staffing; and continued participation from all parties.

Actions Large Energy Buyers Can Take to Transform and Decarbonize the Grid: Procurement Practices for Achieving 100% Carbon Free Electricity

Large energy buyers—including corporates, cities, and institutional customers—have played and will continue to play an important role in driving clean energy in the near term, particularly renewables. However, to ensure that the power sector achieves deep decarbonization over the next two to three decades, large energy buyers will need to take additional actions to play a leading role in accelerating the transition to a carbon-free grid. Large energy buyers can implement approaches that help transform the grid such as matching clean energy purchasing with the timing of their energy use, incorporating demand flexibility, purchasing dispatchable clean electricity, adopting enabling technologies (e.g., energy storage), maximizing emissions reductions, and driving an an equitable transition to clean energy.

A Game-Theoretic Framework for Multiperiod-Multicompany Demand Response Management in the Smart Grid

By utilizing tools from the game theory, we develop a novel multiperiod-multicompany demand response framework considering the interactions between companies (sellers of energy) and their consumers (buyers of energy). We model the interactions in terms of a Stackelberg game, where companies set their prices and consumers respond by choosing their demands. We show that the underlying game has a unique equilibrium at which the companies maximize their revenues, while the consumers maximize their utilities subject to their local constraints. Closed-form expressions are provided for the optimal strategies of all players. Based on these solutions, a power-allocation game has been formulated, which is shown to admit a unique pure-strategy Nash equilibrium, for which closed-form expressions are also provided. This equilibrium is found under the assumption that companies can freely allocate their power across the time horizon, but we also demonstrate that it is possible to relax this assumption. We further provide a fast distributed algorithm for the computation of all optimal strategies using only local information. We also study the effect of variations in the number of periods (subdivisions of the time horizon) and the number of consumers. As a consequence, we are able to find an appropriate company-to-consumer ratio when the number of consumers participating in demand response exceeds some threshold. Furthermore, we show, both analytically and numerically, that the multiperiod scheme provides incentives for energy consumers to participate in demand response compared with the single-period framework studied by Maharjan et al. In our framework, we provide a condition for the minimum budget consumers need and carry out case studies using real-life data to demonstrate the benefits of the approach, which show potential savings of up to 30% and equilibrium prices that have low volatility.

Double Auction With Hidden User Information: Application to Energy Transaction in Microgrid

In this paper, a general-purpose double auction mechanism that is specifically relevant for energy transactions among competing buyers and sellers, i.e., agents, in a microgrid has been investigated. This auction algorithm is implemented by means of a microgrid controller (MC), and is individually rational, weakly budget balanced, and efficient (social welfare maximizing). Furthermore, the mechanism does not violate any physical grid constraints and does not require agents’ private information. These characteristics of the auction are accomplished by a suitable surrogate objective function which implicitly maximizes the social welfare while the agents place bids in a selfish manner and can sell or procure energy. The sellers of energy are modeled as prosumers that are equipped with photovoltaic panels as well as advanced smart meters and are willing to participate in selling their excess energy due to saturation in their energy consumption utility curves. Buyers of energy are assumed to be conventional consumers with smart meter capabilities to communicate with the MC and place bids to get optimal allocations. Buyers aim to maximize their energy usage utility plus their payment amount whereas sellers maximize their own energy consumption utility plus the reimbursement that they receive for selling their excess generation. Furthermore, the mechanism allows the possibility of sellers’ coalition where a fair redistribution of the energy supply is possible in a competitive market with less demand and more supply.

On framework development for the dynamic prosumer coalition in a smart grid and its evaluation by analytic tools

Managing prosumers participation in energy trading becomes complicated, as the number of prosumers in smart grid is expected to rise. In this situation, it is safe to group active prosumers into groups or coalitions. By utilising analytical tools, like game theory, the method for grouping or coalition formation of prosumers can be carefully studied. After analysing prosumers behaviour in energy profile, we propose a novel dynamic, decentralised prosumer coalition formation method based on game theory that can satisfy utility grid demands. A conceptual framework is developed for coalition formation and energy management among prosumers in a dynamic environment. This approach has the potential to increase the size and number of coalitions without a central controller to better manage renewable energy usage and trading with energy buyers. We validate the performance of adopting a game theoretic approach, assessing the strategy using open and shared data sources.

Energy Trading with Electric Vehicles in Smart Campus Parking Lots

Energy trading with electric vehicles provides opportunities to eliminate the high peak demand for electric vehicle charging while providing cost saving and profits for all participants. This work aims to design a framework for local energy trading with electric vehicles in smart parking lots where electric vehicles are able to exchange energy through buying and selling prices. The proposed architecture consists of four layers: the parking energy layer, data acquisition layer, communication network layer, and market layer. Electric vehicles are classified into three different types: seller electric vehicles (SEVs) with an excess of energy in the battery, buyer electric vehicles (BEVs) with lack of energy in the battery, and idle electric vehicles (IEVs). The parking lot control center (PLCC) plays a major role in collecting all available offer/demand information among parked electric vehicles. We propose a market mechanism based on the Knapsack Algorithm (KPA) to maximize the PLCC profit. Two cases are considered: electric vehicles as energy sellers and the PLCC as an energy buyer, and electric vehicles as energy buyers and the PLCC as an energy seller. A realistic parking pattern of a parking lot on a university campus is considered as a case study. Different scenarios are investigated with respect to the number of electric vehicles and amount of energy trading. The proposed market mechanism outperforms the conventional scheme in view of costs and profits.

EVaaS: Electric vehicle-as-a-service for energy trading in SDN-enabled smart transportation system

The increased adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) in the daily life of consumers have led towards the emergence of greener smart cities. However, the problem of energy stability, i.e., balancing the demand and supply, remains persistent in the context of charging stations (CSs). To solve this problem, a unique conceptual solution using EVs has been presented in this paper. The proposed solution deals with the problem of managing the miscellaneous power or power deficit at the CSs by utilizing EVs-as-a-service (EVaaS). On one hand, EVaaS provides opportunities to the owner of EVs to earn profit and on the other hand, it helps to balance the demand and supply at the CSs. This concept works in two steps; (1) EV-as-a-buyer: EVs act as energy buyers and CSs act as energy sellers, and (2) EV-as-a-seller: EVs act as energy sellers and CSs act as energy buyers. In EVaaS paradigm, the CSs are placed in residential, commercial, and industrial areas which broadcast their price for buying (or selling) the deficit (or excess) power from (or to) the EVs. The EVs would then decide whether to charge (or discharge) their battery power from (or at) which CSs based on the factors such as–price and distance. If both the parties come to an agreement, then the EVs would travel to the specified location and exchange the energy with CSs. For the smooth movement of EVs in the smart city, a mobility model is also designed. In addition, this approach also utilizes the software defined networking (SDN) paradigm for enabling faster communication between the entities involved. For this purpose, a flow management scheme is designed for efficient data transfer between EVs and CSs. Through this study, it has been shown that such a strategy for energy trading would help the CSs to balance their load requirements as well as provide profit to the EV owners. The results prove that SDN improves the communication in terms of delay, throughput and network utilization over the conventional networks; while EVs can be successfully utilized to manage the load requirements of various CSs to gain a significant amount of profit.

A Natural Gas Trading Platform for Japan

This study proposes a new method for creating futures market for natural gas in East Asia, using what we refer to as “open access tankers.” Japan, the largest consumer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the world, is considering restructuring its natural gas markets to allow competition. There are, however, no spot or futures markets for natural gas in Japan, and limited opportunities to create such markets due to the nature of the Japanese pipeline system. Without such markets, it is difficult for competitive market participants to engage in price discovery, or to write contracts that effectively cover risks. It is also difficult for parties to operate markets for the storage of natural gas, which is important because the supplies of and demand for natural gas are not coincident. Focusing on Japanese gas market, we will consider a new method for creating a futures market for natural gas, motivated by the regulatory regime of “open access” natural gas pipelines in the United States. We envision a plan for a market using “open access tankers” as follows: A consortium of energy buyers from Japan would be established, under the direction of the Japanese government. Each buyer would contribute an amount to start the consortium, and shares in the consortium would be allocated as a function of how much each owner paid. The quantity of gas in a tanker would be broken down into relatively small units. These units would then be traded, creating a futures markets for gas. Several other necessary but feasible conditions would have to be implemented to make this system a success. The paper will show how the regime of open access tankers can meet the needs for a natural gas price reference system for Japan.

Russia’s energy relations with China: passing the strategic threshold?

This article examines Russian energy policies toward China over the past decade as reluctant engagement changed into a priority energy partnership. From 2008 to 2016 Russian and Chinese companies signed several major oil and gas agreements, a period in which Moscow reassessed China as a future energy consumer and lifted bilateral cooperation to a new level. The article utilizes the strategic partnership concept as an analytical framework and finds traditional realist concepts and hedging inadequate for this particular case. The study illuminates Russian geopolitical considerations and acceptance of vulnerability, which combined make long-term Russian energy policies more China dependent. Officially, Russia seeks diversification among Asian energy buyers, but its focus has increasingly been on China. Western sanctions imposed in 2014 for Russia’s role in Ukraine accelerated this trend. Moscow’s energy policies toward Beijing with its pipelines and long-term agreements are permanent arrangements that resemble strategic partnership policies. China is eager to increase energy relations with Russian companies, but Beijing also ensures that it does not become too dependent on one supplier. Russian concern over its increased dependence on China in the East is deemed secondary to expanding Russia’s customer base beyond the still-dominant European market.

Energy security in the Eastern Mediterranean

As is widely known, the East Mediterranean region has experienced a series of large-scale discoveries of energy resources offshore Israel, Cyprus and Egypt (Leviathan, Tamar, Aphrodite and Zohr fields) since 2009. From the first moment on, the respective energy findings lying in those countries' Economic Exclusive Zones (EEZ) were cheered as a 'game changer' in the conflict-wracked region and as a means of achieving energy security for both sides: the countries with the energy reserves-ownership (the principal actors) as well as possible energy buyers, especially the energy-suffocated Europe. By examining the geopolitical architecture of the region, however, with regard to the long-lasting ethnical and political conflicts as well as some other economic and political factors pertinent to the confirmed energy amounts, it is argued that the current energy discoveries can hardly provide the long-expected energy security for both regional and non-regional actors in the foreseeable future. Unless circumstances locally, regionally and globally align favourably, the area is unlikely to fulfil its potential as a gas exporter.