Environmental economics

Exploit

Renewable energy

Electricity

Peer-to-peer

Engineering

Economics

Power (physics)

Revenue

Electric utility

Market economy

Physics

Finance

Visual arts

Status quo

Quantum mechanics

Computer science

Distributed computing

Electric power distribution

Electrical engineering

Architecture

Distributed generation

Computer security

IEEE Transactions on Power Systems

Peer-to-peer interactions between small-scale energy resources exploit distribution network infrastructure as an electricity carrier, but remain financially unaccountable to electric power utilities. This status-quo raises multiple challenges. First, peer-to-peer energy trading reduces the portion of electricity supplied to end-customers by utilities and their revenue streams. Second, utilities must ensure that peer-to-peer transactions comply with distribution network limits. This paper proposes a peer-to-peer energy trading architecture, in two configurations, that couples peer-to-peer interactions and distribution network operations. The first configuration assumes that these interactions are settled by the utility in a centralized manner, while the second one is peer-centric and does not involve the utility. Both configurations use distribution locational marginal prices to compute network usage charges that peers must pay to the utility for using the distribution network.

A P2P-Dominant Distribution System Architecture