Rise of Algorithmic Trading in Today’s Changing Electricity Market

Electricity markets are getting more dynamic and complex today. On the one hand, there are outside-in factors like new entrants and increasing competition, regulatory mandates, and volatility of the electricity prices. In contrast, on the other hand, there are inside-out factors like the adoption of renewable energies, storages, and EV, emphasis on the generation and retail portfolio optimization together with creating affinity services around the empowered consumers. The paper will start with the introduction of this dynamic environment across the globe with a specific focus on Australia, the UK, and US electricity markets. Introduction of 5 min settlement in Australian Electricity Market, the rise of ancillary service products in the UK, or new roles like Community Choice Aggregators (CCA) in the US are some of the examples of these. The paper will then individually focus on wholesale, retail, and balancing electricity markets and illustrate the role of algorithmic trading in each of them. The paper will then discuss the design, implementation and performance of an electricity broker agent which uses algorithmic approach to perform various activities in a competitive smart-grid-based electricity market.