Peer-to-peer Electricity trading
As part of Energy Futures Lab’s weekly energy seminar series for the 2015/2016 Summer term we are hosting a talk from Dr Fereidoon Sioshansi of Menlo Energy Economics.
Abstract
There is growing realization that the electric power sector is experiencing fundamental transformations at multiple fronts and at an unprecedented pace as further described in the just published book Future of Utilities: Utilities of the Future.
The most important drivers of change include:
- Rapid uptake of distributed generation (DG), notably rooftop solar PVs, coupled with continued improvements in energy efficiency results in flat or declining electricity consumed from the grid;
- Advances in energy management that allows more active participation by consumers in how, how much, and when energy is consumed within premises
- Expected advances in energy storage technologies enabling consumers not only to become prosumers but usher in the age of prosumage
- Promising developments in open platforms that allows consumers to transact with each other, sharing electrons, storage devices while integrating load profiles – the so-called peer-to-peer trading;
- Advances in building design, notably zero net energy buildings, building integrated PVs (BIPVs) and passive buildings that increasingly allows individual or collections of buildings to operate in a grid-assisted mode, increasingly able to balance generation and load to operate as semi-independent microgrids.
This seminar provides an overview of these developments, speculates how they may evolve over time, and what may be their implications.
Biography
Dr. Sioshansi is President of Menlo Energy Economics, a consulting firm in San Francisco and the editor and publisher of EEnergy Informer, a monthly newsletter with international circulation. EEnergy Informer is regularly featured in publications including The Electricity Journal, Energy Spectrum (UK), Energy Post (Belgium), RenewEconomy (Australia), Energize (So Africa), IAEE Forum and Dialogue (US). His professional experience includes Southern California Edison Company (SCE), the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), National Economic Research Associates (NERA), and Global Energy Decisions, now part of ABB.
His recent edited books include
- Electricity Market Reform: An International Perspective (2006)
- Competitive Electricity Markets: Design, Implementation, Performance (2008)
- Generating Electricity in a Carbon Constrained World (2009)
- Energy Sustainability and the Environment: Technology, Incentives, Behavior (2011)
- Smart Grid: Integrating Renewable, Distributed & Efficient Energy (2011)
- Energy Efficiency: Towards the End of Electricity Demand Growth, Feb. 2013
- Evolution of Global Electricity Markets, New Paradigms, New Challenges, New Approaches, June 2013
- Distributed Generation and its Implications for the Utility Industry, June 2014
- Future of Utilities: Utilities of the Future, March 2016.
He has degrees in Engineering and Economics, including an MS and Ph.D. in Economics from Purdue University.