Operation and evaluation of digitalized retail electricity markets under low-carbon transition: recent advances and challenges

Abstract

With the growth of electricity consumers purchasing green energy and the development of digital energy trading platforms, the role of digitalized retail electricity markets in the low-carbon transition of electric energy systems is becoming increasingly crucial. In this circumstance, the research work on retail electricity markets needs to be further analyzed and expanded, which would facilitate the efficient decision-making of both market players and policymakers. First, this paper introduces the latest developments in the retail electricity market under low-carbon energy transition and analyzes the limitations of the existing research works. Second, from three aspects of power trading strategy, retail pricing methodology, and market risk management, it provides an overview of the existing operation and mechanism design strategies of the retail electricity market; then, it provides a systematic introduction to the evaluation system and monitoring methodology of electricity markets, which is not sufficient for the current digitalized retail electricity markets. Finally, the issues regarding operation evaluation and platform optimization of the current digitalized retail electricity market are summarized, and the research topics worth further investigations are recommended.