Optimal time of use of renewable electricity pricing: Three-player games model

Currently, the electricity demand is exponentially increasing due to the population growth. Therefore, the demand side management (DSM) is becoming unavoidable especially with the increasing use of renewable energy sources. One of the most known tactics of DSM is the use pricing strategies to threaten users to schedule their loads by controlling their own appliances. In this paper, a new model of electricity market operators is proposed based on three actors: the utility grid (G) with renewable energy (RE) generation, the electricity consumer (U) and a storage company (S). This approach aims to develop the adequate hourly prices which optimize the utility function of each operator. Then, in order to deal with this objective, two related games are defined. The first one is based on the satisfaction function of U and the G and aims to give the hourly prices of consumers´ electricity bills. While the second one is based on the satisfaction function of G and S in order to optimize the hourly prices of G´s electricity bills. Finally, a case study based on a given RE production and consumers load forecasts has been considered. Simulation results show that the obtained hourly prices allows the consumer load curve to follow the RE curve generation while achieving the main objective of the proposed approach.