A cyber-physical platform for simulating energy transactions in local energy markets

The paper deals with the design and development of a cyber-physical platform for simulating new local smart electricity markets where even small size consumers and prosumers, located on a relatively small geographic area, can sell/buy the electrical energy or power to contribute to the balance of the power system. The local electricity market is managed by a commercial aggregator, organized as a Virtual Power Plant (VPP), that gathers the energy/power flexibility bids from its consumers/prosumers portfolio. The aggregator is responsible for making trading offers in the day ahead and ancillary services (balancing, reserve, voltage regulation, congestion management) electricity markets, and is also responsible for technical aspects and for commercial transactions among its users by exploiting the Blockchain technology.