Research On Time-of-use Pricing Choice Strategy Of Residential Electricity Price Based On Multi-agent Simulation

Multi-agent system employs the functions of communication,coordination and cooperation among agents to help people judge and analyze complex phenomena that cannot be directly observed,and has become an important method for solving large complex problems.The problem of Demand Response(DR)in electrical power system is difficult to be solved because of complicated environment and continuously evolving subject,while multi-agent system can simulate the operation mechanism of electrical power system,playing an important role in solving the DR problems.As a response option to the rapid growth of electricity demand,DR has been widely used in the world.Time-of use pricing method is a price-based DR,which could combining with various forms of electricity pricing method.Time-of-use pricing can achieve the peak load shifting and stabilise the load fluctuation.However,it has not widely used in residential electricity yet.In this paper,firstly,we use the fundamental theory of the Electricity Economics to analyze the pricing methods and the forms of China’s power market with the reform of electric power industry.Secondly,based on multi-agent simulation,we established the multi-agent model of residential power market and the satisfaction function of residential users about electricity price.We studied the interaction process between all the agents of the power supply side,the power selling side and the demand side,and conducted simulation to obtain resident users’ selection and decision about electricity price scheme at last.The results showed that multi-agent system was beneficial to analyze,simulate and solve the DR problems in power market,and the satisfaction function of residential electricity price could help power selling enterprise to better understand residential users’ tendency to choose the scheme along with the participation process of DR.