Viability Analysis of a Decentralized Energy Market Based on Blockchain

Abstract

This paper considers the design, the development and the experimental evaluation, of a blockchain based smart contract specifying the operating rules of a real time, uniform-price double auction energy market. Producers and consumers interact with this contract sending their offers and bids accordingly and the contract clears the market based on a double auction model. We propose four different approaches for implementing, through the Ethereum platform, both the P2P network as well as the smart contract. We systematically compare the above approaches on the basis of their decentralization nature, operating costs, computational costs, effectiveness, security, privacy and beyond. This comparison is achieved through large scale, real time simulations based on the GridLAB-D platform.