Retail Energy Management in Electricity Markets: Structure, Challenges and Economic Aspects- a Review

In the rapidly growing global energy consumption, electrical energy plays the important role. Environmental concerns about air pollution, fossil fuels depletion and energy crisis have led policy makers of energy systems to increase the portion of electricity in the energy portfolio. On the other hand, economic crises, especially in recent years, have increased the electricity price. With decreased purchasing power, end-use consumers are encouraged to participate in Demand Side Management (DSM) programs, e.g. Demand Response Programs (DRPs), to decrease their electricity bills. In such situation, retail energy management attracts attention in both development and improvement. This paper reviews the concept of retail energy management in modern structure of electricity markets. The objectives of this study are: a) review techno-economic studies in the literature to identify the main structure of retail energy management; b) review the different retail market studies for assessing economic performance; c) present a comprehensive evaluation about the role of DRPs in retail energy management; d) carry out an extensive survey of optimization approaches, mathematical modeling and optimization software about the retail energy management. This paper provides a template for market participants to optimize energy management in the retail side of electricity markets. The proposed structure encourages the efficient development of retail electricity market while eliminating the potential for economic inefficiencies through complete modeling of retail electricity market. © 2017, Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.