Bilateral Market for Distribution-level Coordination of Flexible Resources using Volttron

Increasing penetrations of distributed energy resources (DERs) and responsive loads (RLs) in the electric power distribution systems calls for a mechanism for joint supply-demand coordination. Recently, several transactive/bilateral co-ordination mechanisms have been proposed for the distribution-level coordination of flexible resources. Implementing a transactive market coordination approach requires a secure, reliable, and computationally efficient multi-agent platform. An example of such a platform is VOLTTRON, developed by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratories (PNNL). The VOLTTRON platform allows the market actors to exchange information and execute proper control actions in a decentralized way. This paper aims to provide a proof-of-concept of the transactive market coordination approach via a small-scale demonstration on the VOLTTRON platform. The steps needed to implement the proposed market architecture using virtual machines and VOLTTRON are thoroughly described, and illustrative examples are provided to show the market-clearing process for different scenarios.