The Planning Method of the Multi-Energy Cloud Management Platform with Key Technologies and P2P Trade of Prosumers

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

- The whole point of establishing and operating a P2P system is to gain independence from the main grid. If prosumers have access for buying, as well as for selling to the main grid, at given prices - by the grid -, there would be no need, - and indeed, no point -, in selling through a complex P2P system. The authors should clarify if and why this is not the case in their setup.

- A true P2Psystem closed to the main grid can be established providing the necessary storage means, that could be e.g., batteries, EV, and heat in some cases. This can be done, and the design should consider this case. One of the advantages of the P2P system is that electricity can be bought and sold from other near - geographically - prosumers, thus avoiding the need for expensive transmission lines. It is not clear what role this point plays in the model proposed.

- It would also be necessary to distinguish between a true P2P system, and centralised system, even if it made up of a few prosumers and is therefore, relatively small, yet, centralised.

- The paper repeats itself a lot and is highly descriptive; the administrative an engineering small details may be interesting for a consulting firm establishing the system, but not for a research paper. Most of the paper can be omitted, or else punt to appropriate Appendices.

- Contrarily, the trading model, which is the main contribution of the paper, needs a much more detailed description, particularly the mathematics. The Matlab program used to run the simulations should also be made freely available: otherwise, it is impossible to know exactly how the results are generated, and therefore are not reproducible, casting a big question mark over the whole exercise.

- Other than that, the topic is interesting, and so are the results, although they need better explaining.

- The English is generally correct, although it would benefit from a revision by a qualified speaker.

- The references are sufficient and up to date.

Author Response

Thank you very very much to help improve our paper. We have rewritten the whole paper. And we are glad to provide the Matlab data for the readers freely shared. Please see the attachment. Answer to Review 1: (1)The whole point of establishing and operating a P2P system is to gain independence from the main grid. If prosumers have access for buying, as well as for selling to the main grid, at given prices-by the grid -, there would be no need, - and indeed, no point -, in selling through a complex P2P system. The authors should clarify if and why this is not the case in their setup. Answer: The bidding price isn’t given prices, but a random sampling value satisfied with uniform distribution U(0.8pgrid, 1.2pgrid) in a certain range “ToU base price+ up or down 20%”, namely more than ToU price 0.8pgrid selling to grid and lower than ToU price 1.2pgrid buying from grid. We increase the Introduction “The prosumer is the integration of the producer and consumer, through the energy management system (EMS) and smart meters, receiving information communication from the grid. Considering the current world scenario that a few developed countries take into account the peer-to-peer (P2P) distributed resource sharing and trade between the prosumers, if thinking about the future of China energy policy, whether considering the transition from a centralized energy system to a more decentralized market, it will be a huge challenge, with the main advantages to reduce unnecessary power transmission and intensive investment in grid upgrades and greenhouse gas emission”. In the “3.4.1 modelling”, increase the buying price pbuy,t and selling price psell,t follow the uniform distribution in Eq. (1), and in the line 238 to 245, add “The prosumers can sell excess power to the main grid at pgrid, while the other peers sell through P2P at price psell,t after self-sufficiency. If the peers are rational to maximize benefit, power will be bought from the main grid when pgrid≤psell,t, while P2P trade will be succeed when pgrid≥psell,t. Thus, ToU tariff is a very important and useful information for both sides of P2P trade because it decides whether consumers buy power directly from the main grid or other peers through P2P trade [38]. Besides, the users also have irrational behavior, increasing the randomness of quotation. Thus, in this paper, the quoted price pbuy,t and psell,t are assumed to be uniform distribution U(a, b)”. (1) And, increase “5.1 Parameter setting” “To simulate the bidding price, the random sampling with a uniform distribution U(ɑmin,t, ɑmax,t) is adopted”. Figure 14. The base reference price of distribution power from superior power grid, the wind subsidy, PV subsidy, base minimum and maximum price of bidding range, and wind-PV-storage combined price. Table 3. The basic price and bidding price setting rule. Parameters p.u. Reason for setting ToU distribution power price 1 Base 24 hours price Wind subsidy 0.2 Proposed to 0.2 of the ToU distribution power price. PV subsidy 0.22 Proposed to 0.22 of the ToU distribution power price. ToU selling to grid (ɑmin,t) 0.8 “ToU distribution power price ×(1 - 20%)” according to local rule. ToU buying from grid (ɑmax,t) 1.2 “ToU distribution power price ×(1 + 20%)” according to local rule. Wind-PV-storage combined price 0.4 Proposed to 0.4 of the ToU distribution power price. Bidding price ([ɑmin,t, ɑmax,t]) [0.8, 1.2] “ToU distribution power price ×(1 ± 20%)” according to local rule. (2)A true P2P system closed to the main grid can be established providing the necessary storage means, that could be e.g., batteries, EV and heat in some cases. This can be done, and the design should consider this case. One of the advantages of the P2P system is that electricity can be bought and sold from other near - geographically -prosumers, thus avoiding the need for expensive transmission lines. It is not clear what role this point plays in the model proposed. Answer: We add simulation model of IEEE 33-bus distribution system in “5.1 parameter setting” with EV in node 1, batteries as ESS in node 10 and 13, etc. We agree that the electricity bought and sold from other near geographically prosumers to avoid the need for expensive transmission lines and the cost in the example is just trade settlement. For the heat, in the line 246 to 252, we explain that “the CCHP provides electricity whether it provides heat or not due to its two operation modes, often combined with the electric heat pump’s heating and cooling ability. The heating and cooling can be self-balanced among a CCHP system because the heat and cool load is fixed. The electricity, heat and cooling energies are simultaneously, only electricity can be used for P2P trade considering limitations of the transmission and loss [38]. Thus, we can predict the demand for electricity, cooling and heat, but P2P only for power at present. Thus, the heat and cooling balance constraints are neglected”. And, increase the 5.3.3 “Aggregator scenario of prosumer 4 and 8” and 5.3.4 “Bidding strategy analysis”. Then, we thank you very much for finding our program a small bug and have been revised, and get the total trade cost for buying and selling is balanced as zero. We provide the results and all figure sources for your check. Figure 11. Simulation model of IEEE 33-bus distribution system. Table 6. The cost comparison of the successfully traded exchange power for 24 hours under two scenarios. Scenario 1: P2P distributed trade (CNY) Scenario 2: Exchanged with grid (CNY) Prosumer 1 290.9 721.2 Prosumer 2 -719.0 -562.1 Prosumer 3 391.3 932.0 Prosumer 4 -6211.1 -4945.0 Prosumer 5 869.4 1424.9 Prosumer 6 6148.7 7414.4 Prosumer 7 3257.5 3937.3 Prosumer 8 -6476.4 -5177.1 Prosumer 9 152.1 447.8 Prosumer 10 2296.4 2791.8 Total cost of 10 users 0.0 6985.2 (3)It would also be necessary to distinguish between a true P2P system, and centralised system, even if it made up of a few prosumers and is therefore, relatively small, yet, centralised. Answer: We delete the contents about cooperative trade simulation case and increase more common knowledge about true P2P system in the “literature review” (line 157 to 177): “In recent years, the traditional consumers are becoming prosumers, having energy surplus for stored in the storage device for later use, or exported to power grid, or sold to other neighbor consumers for more significant benefits [35]. The direct energy trading between peers, traded among local energy prosumers and consumers is called P2P trade [36]. Different from the traditional electricity trade for consumers to buy power from utilities or retailers through fixed or time-of-use (ToU) tariffs, the prosumers seek the highest price considering profits to sell the surplus energy, while the consumers choose the lowest price based on their needs and preferences. If the prosumers as PV owners sell surplus power back to the grid at a buy-back price, lower than common payments to utilities, because of lack of incentive, they may be passive and not take into account the other benefits that PV brings to the power system, such as nearby trade directly from their immediate neighbors to reduce the transmission losses and congestion of the grid. The P2P mode can provide more incentives to facilitate the deployment of the increased distributed power resources connected to the distribution grid and promote a win-win situation for the buyers and sellers. Besides, the P2P trade mode can save the costs on managing and maintaining the poles and wires that transport power from generators to terminals. The P2P trade can be established within a local small community or mini-grid on the distribution grid without a platform. When a larger group of small communities or mini-grids need to trade, an interconnected grid owned by a distributed system operator with a bigger size and number of participants, the platform is feasible if these prosumers want to trade with each other”. Then, we revise the whole paper with a true P2P system, from section 3 to section 5. we increase the “1.1 Motivation”: “The basic characteristic of China’s power industry is state-owned enterprises. The policy development of power market emphasizes the influence of national policy, such as the price limitation and competition business proportion. The business model, policy and technologies adopted by prosumers determines the renewable energy resource integrated into power system. It is a fear that the expansion of prosumer independent bilateral trade leads to public power service decreased. Thus, actually, to establish a regulation relationship among the prosumers, the main grid and regulatory authority is feasible to deal with trade, operation and maintenance, and grid power related issues. In addition, the trade mode adopted by prosumers is beneficial for the transition from government subsidy to self-sufficiency.” (4)This paper repeats itself a lot and is highly descriptive; the administrative an engineering small details may be interesting for a consulting firm establishing the system, but not for a research paper. Most of the paper can be omitted, or else punt to appropriate Appendices. Answer: We have cut short the contents to 3 pages, to help readers know key technology to overcome, because it’s really very important. (5)Contrarily, the trading model, which is the main contribution of the paper, needs a much more detailed description, particularly the mathematics. The Matlab program used to run the simulations should also be made freely available; otherwise, it is impossible to know exactly how the results are generated, and therefore are not reproducible, casting a big question mark over the whole exercise. Answer: We added “3.4 Modelling and optimization”, checked and revised the Matlab program to ensure it correct. The program and the results are provided freely to the readers as a package attachment. “3.4. Modelling and optimization 3.4.1. Modelling The purpose of the optimization resolution is to get bought and sold power hourly in the day-ahead market. The objective is to minimize the economic cost F. 3.4.2. Optimization algorithm flow chart and pseudo-code The optimization algorithm flow chart and pseudo-code is shown in Fig. 4. (a) (b) Figure 4. The pseudo-code and the flow chart. (a) Pseudo-code of the optimization; (b) Flow chart of the whole process.” (6)Other than that, the topic is interesting, and so are the results, although they need better explaining. Answer: Thank you very much. The explaining and more results like figures and tables are added in section 5. The conclusion has been rewritten. (7)The English is generally correct, although it would benefit from a revision by a qualified speaker. Answer: We have rewritten concisely. (8)The references are sufficient and up to date. Answer: Thank you. We have deleted some old references and increased P2P related references in 2020 to 2022 as [35]-[40].

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Grammer check shall be given once

references to be checked that is has been used inside the paper or not

Author Response

Answer to Review 2: Point 1: Grammer check shall be given once. Response: We have rewritten the whole paper concisely and checked the grammer. Point 2: References to be checked that is has been used inside the paper or not. Response: Thank you. We have checked all the used references inside the paper, deleted some old references and increased P2P related references in 2020 to 2022 as [35]-[40].

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

Please, find below some of my concerns;

 

1.     The abstract needs revision. It must include the paper findings.

2.     Nomenclature section must be added in the beginning of the paper.

3.     Please avoid the lumped references in the introduction section.

4.     The references are old. There are many recent papers related to the energy storage methods must be added in the introduction section.

5.     The literature review must be enriched with the comparison between the presented papers.

6.     Comparison between the presented technologies must be included.  

7.     The algorithm of the presented system under study should be provided with its data.

 

Author Response

Answer to Review 4: 1. The abstract needs revision. It must include the paper findings. Response: We have revised the abstract. Abstract: To build a multi-energy cloud platform with the distributed generation, energy storage, micro-grid, flexible load, electric vehicle piles for high efficiency application is of great significance. In order to manage the resources for dispatching and trading in the cloud platform, this paper solves three problems. Firstly, to present the cloud platform planning method. The modelling and linear optimization algorithm for the prosumer’s self-balanced to minimize the cost with trading quantity and random bidding price are proposed. Secondly, the key technologies to realize the information collection and interaction, and data model management are summarized on the basis of the demonstration project, faced to be urgently solved. Thirdly, P2P trade for small and medium scaled communities affected by grid’s time-of-use tariff for prosumers are discussed. The Matlab simulation with the bidding price following uniformly distributed sampling is taken to analyze the consumers’ benefits and behaviors. The feasibility, methodology, technology and trade mode are analyzed based on the policy background, platform, optimization algorithm and simulation. The P2P trade is a new topic, that needs more work to do in the future real project. 2. Nomenclature section must be added in the beginning of the paper. Response: The nomenclature list generally lists indices, sets, parameters and variables. If according to the publication template, there seems to be no additional paragraphs for abbreviations, so please, we need the editors decide whether to add. For example, we find a similar reference as follows. If the editors and reviewers agree to add additional paragraph for abbreviations, we will add it. 3. Please avoid the lumped references in the introduction section. Response: We have deleted the lumped 3-5 references in the introduction section. And, increase more contents about P2P trade and necessary statements about how P2P as a new topic developed in the current background. 4. The references are old. There are many recent papers related to the energy storage methods must be added in the introduction section.The literature review must be enriched with the comparison between the presented papers. Comparison between the presented technologies must be included. Response: This paper has been rewritten to focus on the prosumers integration into the energy market, the business model and regulatory platform’s challenges. We have revised the literature review. The old references are deleted. This paper increased P2P energy trade related references in 2020 to 2022 as [35]-[40] and gave a detailed statement about how P2P developed and current focuses. The comparison between the presented technologies about this paper’s contribution has been rewritten. 5. The algorithm of the presented system under study should be provided with its data. Response: The program and the results are provided freely to the readers as a package attachment. We have checked the Matlab program and calculated for the final results. Thank you very much for kind reminder. We find a program bug and have corrected it. The trade among prosumers is balanced with the total cost is zero.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

thank you for considering all of my questions. The paper looks much improved and I do not have further queries.

Reviewer 3 Report

The authors have answered all my questions.