Title: Bilateral Contracting in Multi-agent Electricity Markets
Abstract:
Electricity markets (EMs) are systems for effecting the purchase and sale
of electricity using supply and demand to set energy prices. Two key
objectives of EMs are ensuring a secure and efficient operation and
decreasing the cost of electricity utilization. To achieve these goals, three
major models have been considered: pools, bilateral contracts, and hybrid
models.
Multi-agent systems (MAS) represent a relatively new and rapidly
expanding area of research and development. MAS can deal with complex
dynamic interactions and support both artificial intelligence techniques and
numerical algorithms. In this way, a multi-agent approach in which software
agents are capable of flexible autonomous action in order to meet their
design objectives is an ideal fit to the naturally distributed domain of a
deregulated energy market.
This talk describes the key concepts of software agents and presents an
EM simulator enabling market participants to negotiate the terms of
forward bilateral contracts, consider dynamic pricing tariffs, and reach
(near) Pareto-optimal agreements.