Trading electricity markets using neural networks

  • Laura Pozzetti ,
  • John Cartlidge 
  • a,b Department of Computer Science, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
Cite as
Pozzetti L., Cartlidge J. (2020). Trading electricity markets using neural networks. Proceedings of the 32nd European Modeling & Simulation Symposium (EMSS 2020), pp. 311-318. DOI: https://doi.org/10.46354/i3m.2020.emss.045

Abstract

We tackle the problem of developing an automated trading strategy to pro t in the British intraday continuous electricity markets. We must train a feedforward neural network to predict one hour ahead total electricity transmission system demand. In live testing to ensure no look-ahead bias, we present forecast results with accuracy better than National Grid’s own demand forecasts. We then train a second feedforward neural network, using our demand forecast as an input to the network, to predict one hour ahead net imbalance volume (NIV), and use this predicted NIV as a trading signal to buy and sell 30-minute electricity contracts. In live testing, between 09 March and 22 March 2020, the trading algorithm made 599 simulated trades, with 431 trades returning a pro t (an accuracy of 72%). These results demonstrate the potential of neural network driven automated trading strategies to make signi cant risk-adjusted excess returns (i.e., pro ts) in the intraday electricity markets.

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