VirtElect: A Peer-to-Peer Trading Platform for Local Energy Transactions

An average U.K. electricity bill is made up of at least 60% service charge, with approximately 22% related to network characteristics including distance charge. This makes distance and network constraints important factors in matching prosumers on any peer-to-peer energy trading platform as assessed in this article. To realize that, a platform-VirtElect, based on a double auction market is developed to support the matching interaction between prosumers. Case studies based on real microgrid data are used to verify the performance of the platform in demonstrating the potential of local energy consumption. The results show that it is possible to balance local energy generation and consumption, with little or no interaction with the utility grid. We also show that local energy trading is not only beneficial to the environment but also leads to a significant amount of cost savings of up to 45%, depending on the number of participants and their ratios on the platform.