Distributed Load-Shedding in the Balancing of Electricity Markets

Thanks to "smart grids", consumers will gradually become active players in electricity markets, especially by voluntarily decreasing their consumption when receiving scarcity messages from the market operator. For a fast and efficient transition to a more dynamic industry, the regulatory and pricing scheme used both for the endowment of consumers with curtailment rights and the exercise of the options must decentralize the socially optimal dispatching. In particular, the options must be acquired at the retail price. This price is to be an income for the suppliers of energy who have defaulted or who have been withdrawn from the initial dispatch. When exercised, the options of load shedding are to be rewarded at the wholesale price paid by defaulting producers. The volume of the options must be allocated to each consumer taking into account his ability to manipulate information on his profile of consumption and his ability to modify the profile.