An Interoperable Approach for Energy Systems Simulation: Electricity Market Participation Ontologies

Electricity markets are complex environments with very particular characteristics. Some of the main ones for this complexity are the need for an adequate integration of renewable energy sources and the electricity markets’ restructuring process. The growth of simulation tool usage is driven by the need to understand those mechanisms and how the involved players’ interactions affect the markets’ outcomes. Several modelling tools directed to the study of restructured wholesale electricity markets have emerged. Although, they share a common limitation: the lack of interoperability between the various systems to allow the exchange of information and knowledge, to test different market models and to allow players from different systems to interact in common market environments. This paper proposes the use of ontologies for semantic interoperability between multi-agent platforms in the scope of electricity markets simulation. The achieved results allow the identification of the added value gained by using the proposed ontologies. They facilitate the integration of independent multi-agent simulators, by providing a way for communications to be understood by heterogeneous agents from different systems.