A Classification Scheme for Local Energy Trading

TL;DR

This paper provides a structured overview of local energy trading, categorizing existing research, analyzing different approaches, and identifying gaps and future research directions in the context of smart grids and prosumer markets.

Contribution

It introduces a classification scheme for local energy trading literature, analyzes key characteristics, and highlights neglected aspects and open problems for future research.

Findings

Identified three main research lines in local energy trading

Compared techniques and results across different settings

Highlighted neglected aspects and future research directions

Abstract

The current trend towards more renewable and sustainable energy generation leads to an increased interest in new energy management systems and the concept of a smart grid. One important aspect of this is local energy trading, which is an extension of existing electricity markets by including prosumers, who are consumers also producing electricity. Prosumers having a surplus of energy may directly trade this surplus with other prosumers, which are currently in demand. In this paper, we present an overview of the literature in the area of local energy trading. In order to provide structure to the broad range of publications, we identify key characteristics, define the various settings, and cluster the considered literature along these characteristics. We identify three main research lines, each with a distinct setting and research question. We analyze and compare the settings, the used techniques, and the results and findings within each cluster and derive connections between the clusters. In addition, we identify important aspects, which up to now have to a large extent been neglected in the considered literature and highlight interesting research directions, and open problems for future work.