Reviewing global peer-to-peer distributed renewable energy trading projects

Peer-to-peer trading generates a consumer-centric market and encourages a bottom-up hierarchy, allowing consumers to choose the source of energy and conduct preference-based trading. Although peer-to-peer trading has promising benefits, its application in the real-world is limited and often not encouraged. This paper presents a systematic and comprehensive literature review of the business models of 50 peer-to-peer distributed renewable energy trading projects around the world. The aim of this study is to explore the strengths, limitations and challenges of peer-to-peer distributed renewable energy trading considering its prevailing business arrangements to identify the critical requirements for its uptake in the real-world market. The findings reveal that peer-to-peer distributed renewable energy trading has characteristics of both coordinated and decentralised markets. Peer-to-peer trading is very effective when combined with value-added services such as energy storage, demand-side management, energy optimisation and information services. The key strength of peer-to-peer trading is the use of distributed ledger technology (DLT) to provide a secure and transparent trading environment. The main limitations to the implementation of peer-to-peer trading in the real world are the lack of regulations on trading between peers, the lack of public awareness, the complexity of the technology and the lack of government motivation. This study will enable distributed energy resources (DERs) owners, utility companies and network operators to understand how to stay relevant and competitive in peer-to-peer trading markets.