Agent based simulation system for portfolio management in deregulated energy markets

Recent changes in the German energy policy initiated a deregulation process from a monopolistic to a competitive market, fundamentally changing the market structure, transaction relationships and trading processes. This gradual u-turn puts the customers of electric energy in a new position, where they can shop around for the best supplier. There is a need for new computational tools and software solutions for market participants, which support open and dynamic architectures, such as the emerging competitive market environment. These novel software systems need to provide high performance in communication, negotiation, planning and learning skills. Agent technology is currently one of the most exciting research fields in computer science and provides a promising approach to realise such open and dynamic systems. With the support of the EEX (European Energy Exchange), a portfolio management tool has been designed. This research is part of the EU funded RTD project INNOPSE (Innovation studio and exemplary developments for Product Service Engineering), which is co-ordinated by the South-Westphalia University of Applied Sciences in Soest, Germany.