A decision support system for optimal energy sourcing in liberalised energy markets

In liberalised energy markets it could be very important for users to decide how to acquire energy among different transaction markets in order to minimize the supply costs with relatively low risk. To address this problem the paper proposes the employment of a solution methodology based on the Decision Theory. Thanks to the adoption of this methodology users can identify the optimal energy sourcing mix among different transaction markets which minimizes the expected supply costs and the related risks. The effectiveness of the proposed methodology has been demonstrated for a real medium size user based on the actual data of the Italian power market for a 4 months time scenario.