Peer to peer electricity markets

Driven by the energy transition and the development of distributed energy resources, peer-to-peer markets are the focus of much research. Because of their decentralised structure, they allow scaling up by multiplying the number of agents in a market. Moreover, they permit heterogeneous preferences between peers to introduce behaviours such as local exchanges or an environmentally friendly preference. Despite these attractive features, which make them good candidates for the evolution of power systems, they present several challenges that are still being investigated at present in order to become operationally viable. Supporting many agents is done by exchanging even more messages. Furthermore, integration with power systems requires adapting the interaction with the system operator. The aim is to ensure that the physical limits of the infrastructure are respected and to measure the completed trades. The decentralisation of the energy market also has an impact on the market for capacity reserves to deal with contingencies. Finally, the final challenge is how the enduser will deal with such a change. Despite these various difficulties, several pilot projects highlight the possibilities of these markets for the evolution of power systems.