A Distributed Algorithm for Solving Cournot Equilibrium Model of Electricity Markets

Due to information asymmetry in practical electricity markets, it is hard to collect private information of all market participants. As such, the distributed algorithm instead of the centralized algorithm has valuable potentials in solving equilibrium problems as it does not need complete information. In this paper, a Cournot model for the day-ahead wholesale electricity market (DAWEM) is proposed, while considering strategic bidding competition and bilateral contract transactions. Then, based on the equivalence of the optimality condition (Kuhn-Karesh-Tucker condition), the Cournot equilibrium model is converted into an optimization model. A distributed algorithm is applied to solve the optimization model and achieve equilibrium outcomes. Moreover, the existence and uniqueness of the Nash equilibrium for the DAWEM are theoretically demonstrated. Finally, numerical examples are presented to verity the effectiveness of the algorithm.