A novel practical fair nodal price for DC microgrids and distribution systems

DC microgrids and distribution systems will have an important role to play in future electrical power systems, i.e. smart grids. One of the most important issues of dc microgrids and distribution systems is the correct and fair determination of the energy prices of the consumers. In this paper, a novel, practical, accurate, fair nodal price, namely, the real nodal price, is proposed to determine the energy payments of consumers in dc microgrids and distribution systems. Applying the real nodal price, each consumer will exactly pay for their real energy costs, i.e. their accurate consumed energy and originated energy loss. The real nodal price is applicable to different dc microgrids and distribution systems, even those with mesh configuration and numerous distributed generators. The real nodal price leads to zero merchandising surplus. Besides, through the presented novel method in this paper, the real nodal price is computed by a few simple and fast calculations, and, also, no slack bus is necessary to be assigned to compute it. In this paper, the real nodal prices of a dc microgrid are derived through the presented method. The analyses and simulation results confirm the mentioned remarkable features of the real nodal price. (C) 2014 Sharif University of Technology. All rights reserved.