Compliance Checking for Transactive Energy Contracts using Smart Contracts

Abstract

Through transactive energy (TE) platforms, prosumers can enter into a contractual agreement with an Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) to buy and sell energy. Accordingly, the TE contract holders are liable for contractual violations. Manual compliance checking of such transactions is infeasible due to large number of market rules as well as the plethora of executing TE contracts. Moreover, the TE system big data (e.g., offers, bids, and transaction activities) need to be maintained on a transparent, reliable, and secure plat-form. This paper presents a compliance checking method for transactive energy markets based on the IESO (in Ontario, Canada) market rules by using smart contracts that assure the integrity, reliability, and transparency of energy transactions’ data with a permissioned blockchain. The performance of the blockchain network is evaluated through transaction latency and resource utilization. In addition, an acceptance test is successfully conducted to validate the correctness of the platform in terms of trading workflow, runtime status of the TE contracts, and the quality of market clearing results.