Electric power retail management apparatus and method, for generators and customer facilities existing in an area including a plurality of regions

An electric power retail management apparatus in communication with a plurality of electric power generators of power producers and a plurality of electric power customer facilities over a. network, the plurality of electric power generators and the plurality of electric power customer facilities existing in an area including a plurality of regions, the electric power retail management apparatus comprising:

• a memory storing:
• (i) a first information indicating a region in which each of the plurality of electric power generators is located, (ii) a second information indicating a region in which each of the plurality of electric power customer facilities is located, and (iii) a third information indicating an electric power consumption amount of each of the plurality of electric power customer facilities;
• and
• a processor operatively coupled to the memory, the processor being programmed to:
• acquire information on an electric power generation amount of each of the plurality of electric power generators in a future predetermined time period from the plurality of electric power generators via the network;
• acquire information on an electric power consumption amount of each of the plurality of electric power customer facilities from the plurality of electric power customer facilities via the network, and update the third information stored in the memory based on the acquired information on the electric power consumption amount, the electric power consumption amount being an amount of electric power provided to the corresponding electric power customer facility;
• predict an electric power consumption amount of each of the plurality of electric power customer facilities during the future predetermined time period based on the third information stored in the memory:
• allocate at least one of the plurality of electric power generators to each of the plurality of electric power customer facilities based on the first information and the second information stored in the memory, such that at least one electric power generator existing in a same region as each of the electric power customer facilities is preferentially allocated to a corresponding one of the electric power customer facilities;
• calculate a total electric power adjustment parameter for each of the plurality of electric power generators based on the result of the allocation so that a total of the electric power generation amounts of the plurality of electric power generators is equal to or greater than a total of the predicted electric power consumption amounts of the plurality of electric power customer facilities, the total electric power adjustment parameters being based on the predicted electric power consumption amounts of the plurality of electric power customer facilities and the electric power generation amounts of the plurality of electric power generators;
• and
• transmit the total electric power adjustment parameters to the plurality of electric power generators, respectively, in order to control the electric power generation amounts generated by each of the plurality of the electric power generators to each of the corresponding plurality of electric power customer facilities based on the total electric power adjustment parameters.