Abstract
Local electricity markets are emerging as a viable solution to overcome the challenges brought by the large penetration of distributed renewable generation and the need to put consumers as central players in the system, with an active and dynamic role. Although there is significant literature addressing the topic of local electricity markets, this is still a rather new and emerging topic. Hence, this study provides an overall view of this domain and a perspective on future needs and challenges that must be addressed. This review introduces the most important concepts in the local electricity market domain, provides an analysis on the different policy and regulatory framework, exposes the most relevant worldwide initiatives related to the field implementation, and scrutinizes the alternative local market models proposed in the literature. The discussion puts forth the main benefits and barriers of the currently proposed local market models, and the expected impact of their widespread implementation. The review is concluded with the wrap-up and discussion on the most relevant paths for future research and development in this field of study.

Abstract
Local Electricity Markets introduces the fundamental characteristics, needs, and constraints shaping the design and implementation of local electricity markets. It addresses current proposed local market models and lessons from their limited practical implementation. The work discusses relevant decision and informatics tools considered important in the implementation of local electricity markets. It also includes a review on management and trading platforms, including commercially available tools. Aspects of local electricity market infrastructure are identified and discussed, including physical and software infrastructure. It discusses the current regulatory frameworks available for local electricity market development internationally. The work concludes with a discussion of barriers and opportunities for local electricity markets in the future. © 2021 Elsevier Inc.

Abstract
Smart grid (SG) technologies are playing a key role in the electric grid transformation, bringing out promising benefits for different actors and empowering customers. However, this transition imposes new challenges concerning the operation and management of energy, particularly at the distribution level of the electric grid. This chapter provides an overview of achieved advances toward the widespread implementation of SG, including technological and infrastructure developments. Transactive energy presents a distributed decision-making coordination approach using automated energy transactions that is enabled by the intelligence and connectivity benefits of SG. The way in which these transactions can be integrated in a local market environment and how advances in transactive energy, supported by the infrastructure already developed to enable SG, are leading to the emergence of local energy markets is discussed in this chapter. © 2021 Elsevier Inc.

Abstract
The local flexibility market models have emerged as a market-based solution to respond to the challenges that the increase in distributed energy resources caused in the power and energy systems. Using Smart Grid enabling technologies, consumers and prosumers are prepared to respond to any possible demand-side flexibility event. In this scope, this work presents an advanced bidding model for the prosumers/consumers' participation in a local flexibility market to solve existing issues in the local grid. The proposed advanced model consists of a single-sided auction-based clearing method where prosumer offers are ranked and chosen according to the price and other characteristics, such as their location and distance to the problem to be solved. The aim is to prioritize and select the offers that have a more positive impact on the situation to solve at the lowest possible cost. © 2022 IEEE.

Abstract
The growth of renewable energy sources usage at the local level contributes to decentralizing the power and energy systems. Nowadays, there is an increment of residential consumers becoming prosumers able to consume their generation or sell it to the public grid to reduce the electricity bill. This great penetration of electricity compromises the proper functioning of the system. Local electricity markets (LEM) are market platforms aimed at electricity end-users to be able to negotiate and transact it between them, thus becoming active players in the system, being a possible solution to balance local systems. Different approaches for LEM design and implementation are proposed in the literature, usually based on community markets and peer-to-peer. Despite their value, these solutions' scalability is compromised as these are centralized solutions, and processing can become very heavy. In this sense, this work proposes a blockchain-based distributed and decentralized optimal solution for implementing LEM. © 2022 IEEE.

Abstract
The integration of distributed energy resources contributes to accomplishing a balance between the supply and demand inside a local market. The operation of these markets is based on the peer-to-peer negotiations between users, whose cooperation leads to an increase in the social welfare of the community, thus creating a more user-centric market. This work fits in the context of the energy community, where members of a community can exchange energy in peer-to-peer transactions and use the public electricity grid as a backup. The market aims at maximizing the social welfare of the community considering the operational costs of all community members. A particle swarm optimization algorithm implemented in Python is used to solve the problem. © 2022 IEEE.