Carbon‐Coupled Nodal Pricing and Emission Flow‐Based Two‐Stage Operation for Multi‐Microgrids in ADN With Ex‐Post Settlement

ABSTRACT

Geographically dispersed microgrids in active distribution networks (ADNs) are increasingly influenced by network topology, nodal power‐balance conditions, and carbon‐constrained dispatch signals. Meanwhile, the conventional uniform‐factor method cannot accurately capture the spatial heterogeneity of purchase‐side carbon responsibility. To address these issues, this paper proposes a two‐stage low‐carbon operation and settlement framework for a multi‐microgrid (MMG) alliance connected to different buses of an ADN. In Stage I, a bilevel Stackelberg model is established, where the MMG alliance acts as the upper‐level decision‐maker and the distribution system operator performs carbon‐constrained market clearing at the lower level, thereby forming endogenous carbon‐coupled locational marginal prices (CC‐LMPs). The bilevel model is transformed into a single‐level optimisation problem using Karush‐Kuhn‐Tucker conditions. In Stage II, carbon emission flow (CEF) theory is employed to trace electricity‐related carbon attributes, and an ex‐post settlement framework is developed for nodal dynamic carbon intensity identification, purchase‐side carbon‐responsibility accounting, and reward‐penalty correction. Case studies on a modified IEEE 14‐bus system demonstrate that the proposed framework reveals location‐dependent operational heterogeneity and improves the consistency between physical carbon responsibility and economic settlement outcomes.