Profit Maximization for Local Energy Trading with Different Pricing Functions

This paper aims to investigate the optimum profit gained by sellers in a microgrid enabled with local energy trading considering energy prices as functions of sold energy. We consider different linear and non-linear pricing functions for energy prices and maximize the profit at the sellers in each case. The optimization problem formulation takes into account constraints on surplus energy and load demand, as well as constraints on energy prices. For analysis, we have considered three possible categories of house as participants: the first category with solar panels and storage system, the second category without solar panels and storage and the third category with solar panels only. The resulting non-linear non-convex optimization problem is solved for every 30 minutes on a typical day and the hourly, as well as daily average profits are investigated. The impact of different parameters of pricing functions on the average daily profit is numerically evaluated. It is observed that linear pricing functions can lead to larger amount of profits at the sellers when the slope and intercept values in the pricing function are appropriately selected.