Peer-to-Peer Energy Trading: Existing Algorithms, Applications, Platforms, Challenges and Opportunities

Increased penetration of intermittent distributed energy resources (DER) into the power grids exhibits challenges to maintaining the generation-load balance and the stability of the network. The centralised operation of the electricity markets equipped with a high share of DERs may fail to capture the full potential and benefits of the localised DERs. In such a scenario, the peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading mechanism allows neighbouring prosumers to trade energy between themselves for making better use of their energy resources. The P2P energy trading is an emerging topic in power systems research and an up-to-date literature review on this topic would be very useful for the researchers and stakeholders. This paper presents a comprehensive overview of P2P energy trading algorithms and completed (or ongoing) industry projects. Furthermore, this paper explains the major technical platforms used by the P2P energy trading schemes and highlights the challenge and research opportunities on this topic.