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Elaris Computing Nexus

Elaris Computing Nexus


Privacy-Preserving MARL for P2P Energy Trading in Low-Voltage Communities


Elaris Computing Nexus

Received On : 26 May 2026

Revised On : 02 July 2026

Accepted On : 25 July 2026

Published On : 04 August 2026

Volume 02, 2026

Pages : 145-155


Abstract

In this paper, we present a privacy preserving MARL (multi-agent reinforcement learning) model for distributed P2P (peer-to-peer) energy exchange in a low voltage energy community with 55 prosumers. The model incorporates twin critic networks, multi-head attention, a counterfactual baseline, message passing and AC power-flow evaluation in a centralized-training, decentralized-execution setting. The results show that the proposed approach achieves the maximum increasing testing reward of -162.98 while maintaining the privacy of the prosumers and operational constraints of voltage and temperature. Through ablation analysis, we find that attentiveness, twin critics and counterfactual baseline improve Q-value estimation, convergence and policy stability. The framework also reduces dependence on utility, improves the decentralized trading efficiency, and does not incur an excessive computational burden, when compared to many benchmark MARL algorithms with real network constraints.

Keywords

Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning, Peer-To-Peer Energy Trading, Energy Communities, Privacy Preservation, Energy Storage Systems, Low-Voltage Networks, AC Power Flow.

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CRediT Author Statement

The author reviewed the results and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the laboratory staff for their technical assistance and support during the experimental work.

Funding

No funding was received to assist with the preparation of this manuscript.

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Cite this Article

Yong Cui, “Privacy-Preserving MARL for P2P Energy Trading in Low-Voltage Communities”, Elaris Computing Nexus, pp. 145-155, 2026, doi: 10.65148/ECN/2026012.

Copyright

© 2026 Yong Cui. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.