A Scalable Digital Infrastructure for Sustainable Energy Grid Enabled by Distributed Ledger Technology

Abstract

The future of renewable energy transportation and distribution is dynamic and complex, with distributed renewable resources in required distributed control. It is suggested that Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) is a timely innovation with the potential to facilitate this future. The transition to full renewable energy requires an infrastructure capable of handling intermittent production that has a low marginal cost. This requires a distributed control logic where devices with embedded intelligence coordinate local production, a decentralized energy market where prices are not primarily based on production, and an underlying digital infrastructure to enable both. Simulations and experiments have demonstrated great potential in such a digital infrastructure, but real-life tests have identified scalability as a remaining challenge. In this paper, we propose a DLT-based architecture for the energy grid with the development of existing solution concepts by implementing scalability solutions. To this end, we derive energy market components as a framework for building efficient microgrid. Then, we discuss the microgrid as a case study of such a market according to the required components within energy production, transmission, and distribution; distributed ledger platform operations, IoT device manufacturing,; software development; and research in IoT, edge and cloud computing, and energy systems.