Distributed Ledger Technologies Based Microgrid Energy Management Using IOTA Tangle

Abstract

Microgrids' role in the decentralization of energy systems keeps growing and becoming more and more important. Trading mechanisms have been improved by the incorporation of Distributed Ledger Technologies, mainly Blockchain, offering transactions with improved security, and reduced cost, among other benefits. The study of the implementation of Distributed Ledger Technologies as part of Microgrid Transactive Energy Systems has been narrowed down to the use of Blockchain as trading platform, given the maturity and global acceptance of the technology. Nonetheless, other existing Distributed Ledger Technologies, such as IOTA, Tempo, Holochain, Hashgraph, offer significant improvements in transaction cost, scalability and latency. Therefore, this paper presents the implementation and simulation of an IOTA Tangle based micromarket looking forward to increase the research efforts in other Distributed Ledger Technologies, besides Blockchain. A successful simulator is presented, which offers the possibility of evaluating the results and convenience of implementing a microgrid energy manager based on IOTA Tangle.