Designing a Clearing Model for the Regional Electricity Spot Market Based on the Construction of the Provincial Electricity Market: A Case Study of the Yangtze River Delta Regional Electricity Market in China

Building the regional electricity spot market (RESM) in a representative area is an important move to promote the electricity market reform and new power system construction in China. In this paper, the RESM operation model and optimization method are established, which take into account the special power grid operation mechanism and market construction achievements in the provincial electricity spot market. Firstly, the influencing factors, core elements, market structure, and operation model of RESM construction in China are analyzed. Secondly, a bi-level optimization model of the RESM is established. The lower layer is the pre-clearing model of the provincial electricity spot market, which is used to optimize the unit combination strategy, considering unit operation constraints and power grid security constraints in the province. The upper layer is the optimization clearing model of the RESM, which is used to optimize the clearing price and adjust the unit operation strategy and inter-provincial electricity trading strategy, considering the security constraints of regional power grid tie lines. Finally, the RESM composed of power grids in the Yangtze River Delta region of China is simulated as an example. The analysis focuses on the operational state of the power grid after the operation of the RESM, considering its safety benefits, economic benefits, and environmental benefits. The optimization of the RESM can effectively solve the serious regional power grid congestion problem, which is achieved through the superposition and printing of pre-clearing results in various provinces, and the average daily cost of electricity purchasing in the region has been reduced by about CNY 11 million, while the annual cost has been reduced by about CNY 4 billion. In addition, the total carbon emissions have been reduced by 11,000 tons per day and 0.18 kg per kilowatt hour on average, and scenes without power abandonment account for more than 95% of the total scenes.