Guest Editorial Introduction to the Special Section on Transactive Approaches to Integration of Flexible Demand and Distributed Generation

The papers in this special section examine transactive approaches to the integration of flexible demand and distributed generation. Electricity as a sustainable energy carrier plays a central role in themost effective transition scenarios towards a sustainable energy system. To harness this potential, the current electricity infrastructure needs to be rigorously reengineered into an integrated and intelligent electricity system: the smart grid. In the future grid, demand response and response from distributed generation and storage is expected to be used on a large scale to perform active management of distribution grids and to balance the fluctuating power generation of renewable energy sources. Key elements of the smart grid vision are the coordination mechanisms. Through these, vast numbers of devices, currently just passively connected to the grid, will become actively involved in system-wide and local coordination tasks. In this light, market-based, transactive approaches are emerging as strong contenders for orchestrating the coordinated operation of so many devices.