4. Energy Markets of Multi-carrier Energy Networks

Multi-carrier energy networks (MCENs) can participate in different markets and optimize the economical operation of MCEN by optimizing the revenues and costs in these markets. One of the most important markets is the electricity market, where the MCEN purchases or sells electricity to provide the consumers’ demand. Also, there are some ancillary markets (e.g., power balancing services market), capacity market, and local balancing services, which apply extra revenues for MCEN and help the power system operation technically. Moreover, MCEN must consider the use of system charges, tax, and environmental and social obligations in the power management problem. The consumed gas of MCEN consumers is purchased from the gas market. There are imbalance charges for purchased gas on over/under-delivered gas compared to the relevant contracts. In addition to the mentioned markets, there are other markets and incentives such as CO₂ emissions market, energy efficiency market, and low-carbon incentives, which can be considered to improve the MCEN operation technically and environmentally in addition to optimized revenue. More storage capacity and availability of energy prices/incentives for MCEN consumers with communication infrastructure are two reasons of the MCEN higher efficiency in these markets compared to traditional networks, which are described in more detail in this chapter.