Optimizing Power Market Clearing with Segmented Electricity Prices: A Bilevel Model

The energy sector plays a critical role in reducing emissions by transitioning to renewable energy. However, integrating renewable energy into the electricity market impacts market clearing. This article investigates market clearing decisions of renewable and traditional energy companies, considering electricity price segmentation. We propose an interprovincial bilevel market clearing decision-making model. The upper level optimizes the provincial market through a unilateral bidding model, minimizing the operating cost of the power market as the objective function. Meanwhile, the lower level optimizes power purchases by minimizing the cost of acquiring interprovincial renewable energy. A case study was conducted to determine the optimal interprovincial renewable energy purchasing power for multiple energy generation companies, considering the minimum market operating cost and segmented electricity prices. The proposed bilevel market clearing model captures the interplay between intraprovincial and interprovincial transactions, integrating electricity price and ecological attributes. By solving this model, we can attain optimal interprovincial electricity purchase of renewable energy, minimizing the overall market operating cost in the province. Through simulation, 18% of interprovincial transactions are needed to absorb 7.21 KWH of renewable energy from other provinces. When considering price segmentation, the cross-provincial two-level market clearing model can reduce the market cost by CNY 1,554,700.