A Review of Power Trading Models between Distribution Systems: The South African Context

Considering the power supply capacity challenges experienced in South Africa resulting in the implementation of planned rotational power cuts, which have become a part of daily life for South African citizens, this study explores the mechanisms that have yielded progressive results in solving the supply shortage vs demand problem within the power trading industry. The challenges emanating from those solutions are reviewed. Distributed generation incorporated power-sharing between power systems presents the potential to reduce carbon emissions by promoting the utilization of renewable clean energy and to improve the electricity supply vs demand mismatch problem. Carbon emissions relief and sustainable national grid reliance reduction are both incentives with potential benefits to the South African electricity distribution industry. Power trading between power systems has great potential in contributing to a more sustainable electricity trading industry future with cheaper electricity costs and enhanced accessibility to citizens. The study conducted in this chapter reviews the worldwide state of the art in power trading systems. The results indicate a lean toward constrained optimization-based objective function solutions to the problem partially due to the high level of regulation within the power trading industry and the need to satisfy technical parameters. These technical parameters are essential in providing good quality of electricity supply to customers and facilitating international trade of equipment and infrastructure.