**3.1 Agents in a smart natural gas system**

When the natural gas system is structured according to a smart grid architecture, the need for specific agents arises to make the whole network work properly. The different agents that would be involved in the proper performance of a smart natural gas system, including the provision or utilization of DR resources were identified in the research of Montuori et al. [2] and they could be summarized as follows:


*Demand Response Applications for the Operation of Smart Natural Gas Systems DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.101810*


Market operator, who manages the necessary mechanism to exchange natural gas between the parties in the wholesale market (**Figure 1**).

The aforementioned activities refer to roles but not entities. Therefore, it is possible that some agent (for example, a distribution company) plays more than one role (distributor and distribution network operator).
