Research on an Improved Stackelberg Game Strategy for Hydrogen-Integrated Virtual Power Plants Under a Multi-Market Mechanism

To address the insufficient exploitation of the carbon reduction value of hydrogen energy in hydrogen-integrated virtual power plants under multi-market trading environments, as well as the low solution efficiency of existing Stackelberg game methods, this paper constructs a Stackelberg game optimization model for hydrogen-integrated virtual power plants under the coupling of carbon, green certificate, and CCER markets. First, multi-stage hydrogen utilization modes, including power-to-hydrogen, hydrogen-to-methane, and hydrogen-to-heat-and-power conversion, are introduced into each virtual power plant. Demand response is also considered to optimize demand-side energy consumption, thereby improving the hydrogen utilization chain from production and storage to conversion and utilization. Second, the carbon reduction value generated by hydrogen participation in CCER trading is incorporated into the market mechanism, and a carbon–green certificate–CCER multi-market coupling mechanism is established. Finally, a dynamically corrected Kriging metamodel is adopted to approximately replace the lower-level energy management model, so as to improve the solution efficiency of the Stackelberg game model. the case study results show that, after the introduction of CCER trading, the total system cost is reduced by 2.77%, and carbon emissions decrease from 5446 kg to 5344 kg, achieving coordinated improvement in system economy and low-carbon performance.