The Decentralized Autonomous Area Agent (D3A) is a hierarchical market model for the transactive grid. It aims to place an agent on every energy producing or consuming device connected to the grid to bid into open, hierarchical markets for energy transactions. Built in the form of smart contracts, the D3A market scheme will include spot and balancing markets, automating the core technical processes of grid balancing and operation on the blockchain. In the D3A market scheme, prosumers can readily trade flexible capacity from distributed energy resources (DERs), including distributed production, energy storage and demand response. As a result, the energy supply and demand can be balanced in real-time, increasing the productivity of energy assets, while incentivizing sustainable behavior and investments. Additionally, the D3A will include a communications protocol for all devices and agents in the network as well as hardware implementation and deployment of the market model simulation.
In the simulation for Street #1 below, the D3A models one area for each of the three homes plus the electric vehicle. These four areas trade with each other in the spot market contained by their higher area, for the entire Street #1. As loads, such as the electric vehicle are spontaneously switched off, deviations from the spot market trades are reflected in the balancing market and the 24-hour cost to each of the areas is calculated in the table shown. At EventHorizon2018, an open source simulation environment for the D3A market model will be released.