Electricity generation using distributed renewable energy systems is becoming increasingly common due to the significant increase in energy demand and the high operation of conventional power systems with fossil fuels. The introduction of distributed renewable energy systems in the electric grid is crucial for delivering future zero-emissions energy systems and is cost-effective for promoting and facilitating large-scale generation for prosumers. However, these deployments are forcing changes in traditional energy markets, with growing attention given to transactive energy networks that enable energy trading between prosumers and consumers for more significant benefits in the cluster mode. This change raises operational and market challenges. In recent years, extensive research has been conducted on developing different local energy market models that enable energy trading and provide the opportunity to minimize the operational costs of the distributed energy resources by promoting localized market management. Local energy markets provide a stepping stone toward fully transactive energy systems that bring adequate flexibility by reducing users’ demand and reflecting the energy price in the grid. Designing a stable regulatory framework for local electricity markets is one of the major concerns in the electricity market regulation policies for the efficient and reliable delivery of electric power, maximizing social welfare, and decreasing electric infrastructure expenditure. This depends on the changing needs of the power system, objectives, and constraints. Generally, the optimal design of the local market requires both short-term efficiencies in the optimal operation of the distributed energy resources and long-term efficiency investment for high quality. In this paper, a comprehensive literature review of the main layers of microgrids is introduced, highlighting the role of the market layer. Critical aspects of the energy market are systematically presented and discussed, including market design, market mechanism, market player, and pricing mechanism. We also intend to investigate the role and application of distributed ledger technologies in energy trading. In the end, we illuminate the mathematical foundation of objective functions, optimization approaches, and constraints in the energy market, along with a brief overview of the solver tools to formulate and solve the optimization problem.

Renewable energy generation sector has grown rapidly over the past decade with expanding investments in relation to increasing political and public support, as well as technological maturation. This review aims to provide the reader with the recent technological developments in the field, while analyzing the state-of-the-art to identify the major overarching technological trends. The collected information indicates that the main maturation directions for emerging renewable technologies are towards harnessing new untapped sources of renewables and combining the energy generation with additional value creation for more versatile and effective land, infrastructure or labor usage. The overarching concept is clear: generating more economic or environmental value with less investment. The three main emerging technological trends were identified as the development of means for: distributed small-scale generation, large-scale land versatility, and accessing marine renewables. Agrivoltaics, floating PV and floating wind were identified as maturing technologies with high deployment that are heading towards becoming industrial de facto standard practices. The overall technological development, and the possibility of adding new, previously unexploited sources of energy, combined with distributed generation possibilities and novel high versatility co-location applications will likely result in an increased rate of deployment of renewable energy technologies in the coming decade.

This paper presents an in-depth exploration of the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in enhancing the resilience of microgrids. It begins with an overview of the impact of natural events on power systems and provides data and insights related to power outages and blackouts caused by natural events in Estonia, setting the context for the need for resilient power systems. Then, the paper delves into the concept of resilience and the role of microgrids in maintaining power stability. The paper reviews various AI techniques and methods, and their application in power systems and microgrids. It further investigates how AI can be leveraged to improve the resilience of microgrids, particularly during different phases of an event occurrence time (pre-event, during event, and post-event). A comparative analysis of the performance of various AI models is presented, highlighting their ability to maintain stability and ensure a reliable power supply. This comprehensive review contributes significantly to the existing body of knowledge and sets the stage for future research in this field. The paper concludes with a discussion of future work and directions, emphasizing the potential of AI in revolutionizing power system monitoring and control.

Microgrid is a recently developed concept for future power systems. The main characteristics of the microgrid are the capability of integration of renewable energy sources and the ability to operate in two grid‐connected and islanded modes. A significant challenge of microgrid implementation is developing comprehensive control methods to ensure efficient, stable, and reliable operation. Real‐time studies are a promising approach in this case. In this paper, various real‐time energy management approaches have been thoroughly explained following a new categorization of them. A significant literature review of real‐time simulation and modeling methods has also been presented. A review of different applications of hardware‐in‐the‐loop testing of the microgrid is included in the present study. Finally, a discussion on demand for further research has been made. The presented work is organized to allow a reader to understand the importance of real‐time studies of microgrids and highlight trends in literary works without delving deeply into each one.