Generation expansion planning using game theory approach to reduce carbon emission: A case study of Iran

Global warming and climate change caused by human activities are some of the major environmental problems that the most important cause of this phenomenon is greenhouse gases, especially CO2. Due to the many consequences of this global phenomenon in the last two decades, the attention of many scientists and policymakers in the world has been drawn to this issue. Thus, they set various regulations to reduce greenhouse gases and carbon footprints. On the other hand, one of the major causes of increasing carbon emissions is electricity generation power plants; as a result, the most important solution is to reduce CO2 gas generation in these power plants. Nowadays, generation expansion planning (GEP) is an important and inevitable issue for power system designers due to energy consumption growth. Besides, finding a solution in order to satisfy the increasing electricity demand in the future years and considering carbon reduction as a new constraint to this problem is a challenging subject. This paper modelled the GEP problem with a game theory approach by considering government regulations, including carbon tax and subsidy. Therefore, four possible strategies have been assumed to achieve the goal of carbon reduction. We have considered Iran as our case study, and the results have been analyzed and discussed. Eventually, a comprehensive sensitivity analysis is carried out based on the carbon tax and government subsidy.