A Comprehensive Competitiveness Decision Method for Electricity Retailers Considering the Integration of Device Operation, Investment Planning, and Marketing Strategy

In this article, we propose a competitiveness decision optimization method for the electricity retailer (ER). This method develops an integrated framework where three components involved in the ER service life (i.e., device operation, investment planning, and marketing strategy) are coordinately designed by considering their mutual interactions. Specifically, in the device operation component, the time sequence of the optimal output per capacity of wind turbine (WT), photovoltaic (PV), and energy storage (ES) is investigated in the investment planning component, a year sequential capacity investment strategy for WT&PV&ES is presented; in the marketing strategy component, two electricity service packages, including general service package and customized service package are designed, followed by an electricity transaction plan in the electricity market. In addition, the demand response and the electricity consumption selection of potential users are also modeled in the marketing strategy component to facilitate ER competitiveness. As illustrated in the case study, compared with the decision method without considering ER competitiveness, the proposed method can increase the profit by 2.1%, enlarge the market share by 40%, and boost the ER competitiveness by 7.01%, respectively.