Negotiating Bilateral Contracts in a Multi-agent Electricity Market: A Case Study

Electricity markets are systems for effecting the purchase and sale of electricity using supply and demand to set energy prices. Three major market models are often distinguished: pools, bilateral contracts, and hybrid models. This article addresses the challenge of using software agents with negotiation competence to help manage the complexity of electricity markets, particularly the issues associated with the negotiation of bilateral contracts. Specifically, it presents a multi-agent energy market and describes a case study on forward bilateral contracts.