On the applicability of distributed ledger architectures to peer-to-peer\n energy trading framework

Abstract

As more and more distributed renewable energy resources are integrated to the\ngrid, the traditional consumers have become the prosumers who can sell back\ntheir surplus energy to the others who are in energy shortage. This\npeer-to-peer (P2P) energy transaction framework benefits the end users,\nfinancially and in term of energy security; and the network operators, in term\nof flexibility in DRES management, peak load shifting and regulation of\nvoltage/frequency. Environmentally, P2P energy transaction also helps to reduce\ncarbon footprint, reduces DRES payback period and incentivizes the installation\nof DRES. The current centralized market model is no longer suitable and it is\ntherefore necessary to develop an adapted decentralized architecture for the\nadvanced P2P energy transaction framework intra/inter-microgrid. In this paper,\nwe discuss several distributed ledger approaches for such framework:\nBlockchain, Block Lattice and Directed Acyclic Graph (the Tangle). The\ntechnical advantages of these architectures as well as the persistent\nchallenges are then considered.\n