Individual Interaction Simulations of Integrated Energy Systems Based on Cobweb Theorem

As the growing energy demand and urgent need for higher energy efficiencies, Integrated Energy System (IES) has draw more and more attention. The optimization of operating strategy of IES is mainly in an integrated manner. In this paper, an IES model is established which composes of an electrical power system (EPS) and an elastic load center (LC) with mixed energy demand varying with energy prices. The two individuals operate independently objecting to maximize their own benefits and communicating with mutual information. In this way, the independent operation and information privacy are respected which is important in a real energy market. Cobweb theorem which is well known as an economic principle is applied to find the optimal operating strategy of IES. Simulation studies have been carried out in MATLAB and the results show that when the two individuals of the system pass over the other marginal prices and energy demands, the interaction can converge to the optimal operating point of the system, which is also the point of maximum social welfare. In addition, further sensitive analysis have been done on this model to find out the effects of pricing mechanism on system interaction results, the number of iterations, and the system turbulence. We also find that electricity price makes a greater difference to system convergence than thermal energy price.