Multi-agent simulation of competitive electricity markets: Autonomous systems cooperation for European market modeling
Introduction
The electricity markets (EM) restructuring has been changing the EM paradigm over the last few decades. The privatization, liberalization and international integration of previously nationally owned systems are some examples of the transformations that have been applied [1].
Nowadays EM operate using more complex and reliable models. However, EM are still restricted to the participation of large players [2]. All around the world this problem is being addressed in different ways. However, during the last years some common solutions are being globally adopted. EM are evolving to regional markets and some to continental scale, supporting transactions of huge amounts of electrical energy and enabling the efficient use of renewable based generation in places where it exceeds the local needs.
A reference case of this evolution is the European EM where the majority of European countries have joined together into common market operators, resulting in joint regional EM composed of several countries [3]. According to [4], Italy has recently joined Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland (via the SwePol Link), Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden in a day-ahead coupled European electricity market. The integration of all the regional electricity markets in a Pan-European market is made through a Multi-Regional Coupling algorithm called EUPHEMIA1 [5] used on a day-ahead basis [6]. The newly developed unique single price coupling algorithm has been developed by the Price Coupling of Regions (PCR) Project [7]. PCR is an initiative of 7 European market operators, who together have developed the procedures, redundant decentralised but interlinked IT systems and a single algorithm that calculates electricity prices, net import and export positions, and cross border electricity flows in one single run. This market has a yearly consumption around 2800 TW h. The daily average cleared volume over these countries amounts to over 4 TW h, with an average daily value of over EUR 150 millions. Several coupling initiatives have been realized [8], however significant work still has to be done. Currently, the involved market operators and Transmission System Operators (TSOs) are occupied with important integration developments, such as the coordinated cross-border coupling of intraday electricity markets, which is foreseen for the end of 2014.
The transformation of National EM into Regional and Continental EM is evidenced by other examples, such as the U.S. EM like in California Independent System Operator (CAISO) [9]. Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) [10] is other example of regional market in US. In Latin-American, Brazil also integrated all the regions in a joint electricity market [11]. These markets, although not representing a Continent as a whole, can be considered as Continental EM due to these countries’ size.
Due to the constant evolution of the EM environment, and the inclusion and change in the operation and players’ participation in EM, it becomes essential for professionals in this area to completely understand the markets’ principles and how to evaluate their investments under such a competitive environment. The usage of simulation tools has grown with the need for understanding those mechanisms and how the involved players’ interaction affects the outcomes of the markets. The necessity for the integration of different models and platforms brings out the need for communication capabilities that allow entities of different environments (such as software agents) to be able to understand each other and cooperate toward a common goal. Ontologies allow just that [12] by representing concepts and defining a common “language” that can be understood by all software systems. Therefore allowing systems to coexist and collaborate.
The main contribution of this paper is the development of an upper-ontology that represents the main concepts present in power systems and electricity markets. These concepts and their connection are represented in OWL and can be used and extended by each different simulation platform, in a way to integrate efforts and different perspectives. The use of languages that can be understood by different systems facilitates the connection and cooperation between them, which enables simulators, such as MASCEM, to integrate several different EM models and power system approaches that allow a broader study capability in this field. The integration of the diverse models and systems is not achieved by means of a specific computational model, but by the use of the proposed ontology as communication language between the software agents that are present in the simulators. With the use of such a common communication language, agents from the different systems are able to participate in simulations performed by other systems, and use computational models that until now were only available to entities of the same system.
After this introductory section, Section 2 presents a discussion on the most relevant related work, and Section 3 provides an overview of the current state of the European EM. Section 4 presents three multiagent systems (MAS) that are directed to study of power systems, and that are connected using the upper-ontology proposed in Section 5. A case study is presented in Section 6. Finally, Section 7 presents the most relevant conclusions and future work.
Section snippets
Related work
The constant evolution of EM makes it essential for professionals to completely understand the markets’ principles and how to evaluate their investments under such a competitive environment. The usage of simulation tools has grown with the need for understanding those mechanisms and how the involved players’ interaction affects the outcomes of the markets. With a multi-agent simulation tool the model may be enlarged and future evolution of markets may be accomplished.
Multiagent simulation
Electricity market overview
Each electricity market has its rules and clearing price mechanisms taking into account the power systems reality and the available energy mix. The increase of distributed generation based in natural sources introduces new challenges to the market operators due to the changes in the energy mix. These units have high impact in the day-ahead market clear price and also in the balancing market. On the other hand, the reserves should consider the uncertainties introduced by these units.
Some markets
Multiagent simulation of electricity markets
Electricity market and power system simulators must be able to cope with an evolving complex dynamic reality in order to provide players with adequate tools to adapt themselves to the new reality, gaining experience to act in the frame of a changing economic, financial, and regulatory environment [35]. With a multi-agent simulation tool the model may be easily enlarged and future evolution of markets may be accomplished. The integration of different models and the interconnection with other
Upper ontology for systems’ interoperability
The integration of multi-agent systems raises inherent issues to the inter-operation of those systems, particularly the ones involving the use of different ontologies [42]. To disseminate the development of interoperable multi-agent systems, especially in the power industry, these issues need to be addressed [27]. In order to take full advantage of the functionalities of those systems, there is a growing need for knowledge exchange between them. Open standards are needed to provide full
Case study
This case study is based on four scenarios created using real data extracted from the several European regional market operators. These scenarios, created to represent the European reality through a summarized group of market negotiation agents, include seller and buyer players, representing the numerous areas that compose each regional market (e.g., in the Iberian Market, each of the two areas represents one country: Portugal and Spain; while in some regional markets, e.g. Nord Pool, these
Conclusions and future work
This paper presented MASCEM, a multi-agent simulator of competitive electricity markets and power systems. MASCEM includes a close cooperation with two other systems developed by the authors’ research group – ALBidS and MASGriP. Although these systems are independent platforms, to achieve better results in the study of these systems and from the interaction between the involved agents, the need to connect them arises. For this it is necessary that the agents involved are able to interpret
Acknowledgements
This work is supported by FEDER Funds through COMPETE program and by National Funds through FCT under the projects FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER: UID/EEA/00760/2013, and PTDC/EEA-EEL/122988/2010, and by the SASGER-MeC, project n° NORTE-07-0162-FEDER-000101, co-funded by COMPETE under FEDER Programme.
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