An MDP approach to modeling and control of real-time pricing systems

Real-time pricing of electricity is a system that charges different electricity prices for different hours of the day and for different days, and is effective for reducing the peak and flattening the load curve. On the other hand, the eco-point point system in Japan was introduced to stimulate the economy and raise awareness of global warming. In this paper, we consider a real-time pricing system that computes both the electricity price and the points, and propose a modeling method and an optimal control method using a Markov decision process (MDP). First, the outline of the proposed approach is explained. Next, a model of a set of customers is derived as a multi-agent MDP. Furthermore, the optimal control problem is formulated, and is reduced to a quadratic programming problem. Finally, a numerical simulation is shown.