A Dynamic Framework for Customer Engagement in The Era of Microgrid

Abstract

Electricity as a commodity has experienced a shift in its economic model of competition from regulated monopolies towards full competitive markets. Distributed generation, particularly renewable energy (RE) plays an important role in the new decentralized paradigm of power systems. The emerging potential of distributed generation can be gained through implementing Microgrids which deal with both generation and associated loads as a subsystem that can operate in both modes of operation grid-connected and islanded mode. Energy trading through microgrid management is a solution to encourage the trade of energy among retailers (prosumers) to better balance the energy demand and supply which in turn opens a competitive market for energy trading among retailers in a microgrid. This paper provides a complete description of microgrid management and the dynamics with energy markets, as well as an examination of the challenges and opportunities to an increase in microgrid penetration to serve electricity consumers. In addition to providing a new algorithm that can be used to improve the efficiency of power grids by engaging customers and using a demand response program with a microgrid to modify their power consumption pattern during peak load with less cost.