Electric Power Market Experiments with Optimal Topology Control

The purpose of this experimental study is to provide engineering students an energy trading experience in electricity market and to test a new topology control capability in a market with human participants. Students in electrical engineering department participated in repeated experiments using a developed in-house market-simulation software package. Proposed optimal topology control algorithm guarantees to find a better topology that meets at least the same N-1 contingency criterion and yields a better objective function value than the original topology does. A semi-definite programming solver is developed to find a lower bound for an optimal power flow problem. We observed a significant change in pricing when optimal topology control was employed. From direct exposure through participation and submitted reports, students were able to pick up on and intuitively understand how optimal transmission topology control method might yield the most favorable market results.