Bilateral Market for Distribution-level Coordination of Flexible Resources using Volttron

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a proof-of-concept for a transactive market coordination of distributed energy resources using the VOLTTRON platform, highlighting its potential for decentralized control in distribution systems.

Contribution

It provides a detailed implementation and demonstration of a bilateral market architecture for flexible resources using VOLTTRON, a multi-agent platform.

Findings

Successful small-scale demonstration of market clearing process

Detailed steps for implementing the architecture with virtual machines

Illustrative scenarios showing coordination of flexible resources

Abstract

Increasing penetrations of distributed energy resources (DERs) and responsive loads (RLs) in the electric power distribution systems calls for a mechanism for joint supply-demand coordination. Recently, several transactive/bilateral coordination mechanisms have been proposed for the distribution-level coordination of flexible resources. Implementing a transactive market coordination approach requires a secure, reliable, and computationally efficient multi-agent platform. An example of such a platform is VOLTTRON, developed by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratories (PNNL). The VOLTTRON platform allows the market actors to exchange information and execute proper control actions in a decentralized way. This paper aims to provide a proof-of-concept of the transactive market coordination approach via a small-scale demonstration on the VOLTTRON platform. The steps needed to implement the proposed market architecture using virtual machines and VOLTTRON are thoroughly described, and illustrative examples are provided to show the market-clearing process for different scenarios.