Peer-to-Peer Energy Trading in Microgrids and Local Energy Systems

Peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading is an innovative approach for managing increasing numbers of Distributed Energy Resources in microgrids or local energy systems. In P2P energy trading, prosumers and consumers directly trade and exchange power and energy with each other. The development of P2P energy trading is described in five key aspects, that is, market design, trading platforms, power and ICT infrastructure, regulation and policy, and from a social science perspective. A general multiagent framework is established to simulate the behaviour of and interaction between multiple entities in P2P energy trading. A general evaluation index hierarchy is proposed to assess various P2P energy trading mechanisms. Finally, a residential community that is set in the context of Great Britain is studied using multiagent simulation and hierarchical evaluation methods. Both the technical and economic benefits of P2P energy trading are demonstrated.

Rural development in Papua: lesson learned from cocoa farming

This paper convey a reflection on the economic activities of the chocolate farming community in Berab, Papua and its relationship with the international market, namely in Japan through the Kakao Kita business organization in Jayapura. The ethnographic methods was used to collect the data, in-depth interviews, participant observation, and visual ethnography are conducted during June 2020 – January 2021.The crucial finding from this research is that the trading systems that are built are both based on humanism and community principles. Both buyers from Japan and the farming community built social relations which then abandoned the impression that trade, especially on an international scale, was all about profit and loss. There is a positive intersubjectivity between the two of them, shown by a sense of togetherness in the importance of maintaining this relationship, as well as the relationship to nature shown by organic cocoa plantation management and transparent and humanist trading mechanisms. Furthermore, the challenge that arises and need to reflect on is whether a similar scheme model can be replicated to other communities in Papua. It is recommended to the Papuan local government to take a closer look at the policy implementation process, especially from special autonomy for the economic empowerment of local communities.

Democracy, the Market, and the Firm

This book is an attempt to resolve an enigma that has puzzled social scientists since Condorcet in the eighteenth century: Why are collective choices so stable and easy to make in practice, when in theory it should be totally otherwise? A striking illustration of this enigma is the almost unanimous support of shareholders in publicly traded companies for the motions tabled by directors. The first part of the book explores the interplay between the voting and trading mechanisms. Two main arguments are proposed: on the one hand, the better the market works, the easier it is for majority voting to achieve political stability; on the other hand, among all market equilibria, those that are politically stable are more likely to be economically efficient. The second part of the book explores the feedback from collective choices to individual preferences. It investigates the behavioral assumptions leading to an alignment of shareholders, even in a context of severe market failures, and provides an analysis of the philosophical and axiomatic underpinnings of these assumptions. In sum, and figuratively, the book argues that the invisible hand of the market and the active hand of democracy can work hand in hand to give rise to a better world. The analysis relies on formal models which are kept as simple as possible and make use only of elementary convex and vector analysis.

Capturing a soil carbon economy

Current carbon pricing and trading mechanisms, despite their efficacy in reducing GHG emissions from industry, will not be sufficient to achieve Net Zero targets. Current mechanisms that redress emissions are largely economic disincentives , in effect financial penalties for emitters. In order to attain Net Zero futures, financial incentives for activities that sequester carbon from the atmosphere are needed. Herein, we present the environmental and economic co-benefits of soil re-carbonization and justify support for soil carbon remuneration. With increasing momentum to develop green economies, and projected increases in carbon price, growth in the global carbon market is inevitable. The establishment of a soil-based carbon economy, within this emerging financial space, has the potential to deliver a paradigm shift that will accelerate climate change mitigation, and concurrently realize net gains for soil health and the delivery of soil ecosystem services. Pivotal to the emergence of a global soil carbon economy will be a consensus on certification instruments used for long-term soil carbon storage, and the development of robust institutional agreements and processes to facilitate soil carbon trading.

Predicting the Existence and Prevalence of the US Water Quality Trading Markets

Water quality trading (WQT) programs aim to efficiently reduce pollution through market-based incentives. However, WQT performance is uneven; while several programs have found frequent use, many experience operational barriers and low trading activity. What factors are associated with WQT existence, prevalence, and operational stage? In this paper, we present and analyze the most complete database of WQT programs in the United States (147 programs/policies), detailing market designs, trading mechanisms, traded pollutants, and segmented geographies in 355 distinct markets. We use hurdle models (joint binary and count regressions) to evaluate markets in concert with demographic, political, and environmental covariates. We find that only one half of markets become operational, new market establishment has declined since 2013, and market existence and prevalence has nuanced relationships with local political ideology, urban infrastructure, waterway and waterbody extents, regulated environmental impacts, and historic waterway impairment. Our findings suggest opportunities for better projecting program need and targeting program funding.

The Prisoners’ Dilemma in collaborative carriers’ request selection

Logistics providers have to utilize available capacities efficiently in order to cope with increasing competition and desired quality of service. One possibility to reduce idle capacity is to build coalitions with other players on the market. While the willingness to enter such coalitions does exist in the logistics industry, the success of collaborations strongly depends on mutual trust and behavior of participants. Hence, a proper mechanism design, where carriers do not have incentives to deviate from jointly established rules, is needed. We propose to use a combinatorial auction system, for which several properties are already well researched but little is known about the auction’s first phase, where carriers have to decide on the set of requests offered to the auction. Profitable selection strategies, aiming at maximization of total collaboration gains, do exist. However, the impact on individual outcomes, if one or more players deviate from jointly agreed selection rules is yet to be researched. We analyze whether participants in an auction-based transport collaboration face a Prisoners’ Dilemma. While it is possible to construct such a setting, our computational study reveals that carriers do not profit from declining the cooperative strategy. This is an important and insightful finding, since it further strengthens the practical applicability of auction-based trading mechanisms in collaborative transportation.

Real Time Emissions Monitoring: The Foundation of a Blockchain Enabled Carbon Economy

With 49% of the world’s GDP under net zero goals, the global community is changing in how it treats emissions and carbon releases, with shareholders, stakeholders and investors demanding transparency on current performance and strategies to reduce or offset emissions. High frequency, reliable data empowers an organisation to strategically optimise and track emissions to reach committed goals from the asset level to the board room and across direct, indirect and supply chain sources (Scope 1, 2 and 3). A carbon footprinting solution, which provides a holistic view of total greenhouse gas emissions, requires a combination of carbon accounting, control system integration, emissions monitoring and greenhouse gas reporting software, to deliver an automated, reliable and verifiable real-time emissions/carbon reporting solution. This solution is also critical in providing managed data which can be utilised in the carbon economy and when combined with a Blockchain platform, results in a holistic data transfer chain for emissions reporting which is secure, transparent and trusted throughout industry and government. The role of comprehensive, connected environmental monitoring will be explored in the role of effective emissions offset and carbon trading economies with Blockchain supported technologies being presented as an enabling aspect of the overall solution. Smart contracts embedded within a Blockchain solution could automate trading mechanisms however require quality emissions monitoring data as a foundation for successful implementation. The role of quality emissions monitoring and governance in this process will be presented together with implications for industry and government for the carbon economy.

Real time emissions monitoring: the foundation of a blockchain enabled carbon economy

With 49% of the world’s gross domestic product under net zero goals, the global community is changing in how it treats emissions and carbon releases, with shareholders, stakeholders and investors demanding transparency on current performance and strategies to reduce or offset emissions. High frequency, reliable data empowers an organisation to strategically optimise and track emissions to reach committed goals from the asset level to the board room and across direct, indirect and supply chain sources (Scope 1, 2 and 3). A carbon footprinting solution, which provides a holistic view of total greenhouse gas emissions, requires a combination of carbon accounting, control system integration, emissions monitoring and greenhouse gas reporting software, to deliver an automated, reliable and verifiable real-time emissions/carbon reporting solution. This solution is also critical in providing managed data which can be utilised in the carbon economy and when combined with a blockchain platform, results in a holistic data transfer chain for emissions reporting which is secure, transparent and trusted throughout industry and government. The role of comprehensive, connected environmental monitoring will be explored in the role of effective emissions offset and carbon trading economies with blockchain supported technologies being presented as an enabling aspect of the overall solution. Smart contracts embedded within a blockchain solution could automate trading mechanisms however require quality emissions monitoring data as a foundation for successful implementation. The role of quality emissions monitoring and governance in this process will be presented together with implications for industry and government for the carbon economy.