TITLE:
Optimal Operation Strategy of Distributed Integrated Energy Microgrid Considering Ladder-Type Carbon Trading
AUTHORS:
Li Jiang, Dong Han
KEYWORDS:
Distributed Integrated Energy Microgrid, Ladder-Type Carbon Trading, Low-Carbon Economy, Multi-Energy Coupling
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Power and Energy Engineering,
Vol.14 No.2,
February
6,
2026
ABSTRACT: Distributed Integrated Energy Microgrid, as a key infrastructure for the low-carbon transition of regional energy systems, faces critical challenges in achieving optimal operation—primarily due to limited energy endowments and insufficient internalization of carbon costs. To address these issues, this paper proposes an optimal operation method for distributed integrated energy microgrids considering ladder-type carbon trading. Firstly, a reward-punishment incentive-based ladder-type carbon trading mechanism is introduced to control the carbon emission level of microgrids through differentiated carbon prices. Secondly, a low-carbon economic operation objective targeting the minimum comprehensive operation cost of the microgrid itself is constructed, and the original problem is transformed into a mixed-integer linear programming problem, which is solved using the CPLEX solver. Finally, case studies using data from the Shanghai Caojing Integrated Energy Center demonstrate that the proposed method achieves excellent economic efficiency and low-carbon performance, thereby confirming its feasibility and engineering applicability.