Decentralized P2P Energy Trading under Network Constraints in a Low-Voltage Network

TL;DR

This paper introduces a sensitivity analysis-based method to enable decentralized P2P energy trading in low-voltage networks while ensuring network constraints are maintained, facilitating economic benefits without technical violations.

Contribution

It presents a novel methodology to assess and guarantee network constraint compliance in P2P energy trading, addressing a key technical challenge in decentralized energy markets.

Findings

Method effectively prevents network constraint violations during P2P trading

Users retain economic benefits within the proposed framework

Validated on a typical UK low-voltage network

Abstract

The increasing uptake of distributed energy resources (DERs) in distribution systems and the rapid advance of technology have established new scenarios in the operation of low-voltage networks. In particular, recent trends in cryptocurrencies and blockchain have led to a proliferation of peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading schemes, which allow the exchange of energy between the neighbors without any intervention of a conventional intermediary in the transactions. Nevertheless, far too little attention has been paid to the technical constraints of the network under this scenario. A major challenge to implementing P2P energy trading is that of ensuring that network constraints are not violated during the energy exchange. This paper proposes a methodology based on sensitivity analysis to assess the impact of P2P transactions on the network and to guarantee an exchange of energy that does not violate network constraints. The proposed method is tested on a typical UK low-voltage network. The results show that our method ensures that energy is exchanged between users under the P2P scheme without violating the network constraints, and that users can still capture the economic benefits of the P2P architecture.