A survey of the Game theory approaches in Smart grid with an emphasis on Cooperative Games

The Smart Grid is a large-scale electric power grid by using digital technology that integrates the components of power generations (producers and consumers) in order to enhance the reliability, security, and efficiency by utilizing sensing, processing, measurement, and control. Now, the technologies should lie on the abstract mathematics firmly to model and control the operations. Game theory is a mathematical tool to model systems with Multi-agents (rational decision-makers). Game theory models the behavior of independent and rational agents which in they want to maximize their profits. To this end, we model the behavior of agents and the possible behaviors profit. In the new system, users are able to generate the required energy from renewable energy sources such as solar panels, electric generators, and so forth. Hence, in these complex systems, we would make the use of the mathematical tools to model the interactions and features between agents. In this paper, three basic questions will be answered which I) Why cooperation between agents is valuable. II) Which forms of cooperation are forming and III) Why and how game theory can model the cooperation. In the following, we survey a number of Game theory-based applications especially cooperative game theory to solve relevant problems in Smart Grid. The applications of the Game theory have been presented in three scopes: Micro-grid, Demand Side Management (DSM), and Communications that we will describe them in detail in the following.