A new pricing scheme for intra-microgrid and inter-microgrid local energy trading

In this paper, an optimum pricing scheme has been designed to maximize the profits earned by sellers in microgrids through intra-microgrid and inter-microgrid local energy trading. The pricing function is optimized for different priority groups of participants within the microgrid and it is represented as a linear function of the energy sold/purchased during energy trading. A non-linear optimization problem has been formulated to optimize the amount of energy sold, as well as the coefficients of pricing function with an objective to maximize the profit for the sellers at a certain time instant. The numerical simulation results demonstrate that the proposed approach can reduce energy mismatch at the participants compared to the case when different priority groups are not considered. The findings also illustrate that the optimum pricing function can achieve higher profit for the sellers when compared with existing pricing schemes.