Distributed energy trading on networked energy hubs under network constraints

A distributed energy trading scheme with non-discriminatory pricing for a cluster of networked energy hubs (NEHs) is proposed. First, each energy hub (EH) is treated as a self-interested agent. The hybrid AC/DC microgrid (MG)-embedded EH model is proposed to optimize the operating costs under corresponding local energy balance constraints. The supply limits of the input energy systems, e.g., electrical feeders and natural gas pipelines, are represented as the global coupling constraints among NEHs. Then, to obtain the optimal operation and trading strategies, the distributed energy trading is formulated as a generalized Nash game (GNG). To ensure the solubility of the GNG problem, the existence and uniqueness of the generalized Nash equilibrium (GNE) are proved. Furthermore, to transform the complexity of the solution, the multivariable GNG problem is reformulated as a N+1 Nash game (NG) without coupling constraints, the equivalence between NG and the solution set of variational inequality (VI) problem is established. Then, an efficient distributed projection-based algorithm is proposed to compute a Nash equilibrium (NE) for the NG problem. Finally, a potential game-based centralized solution method is also implemented as a baseline, and the comparison of simulation results demonstrates the effectiveness of our proposed algorithm.