Smart Microgrid-Based Energy Management Using Blockchain

Abstract

The traditional energy resources are not able to suffice present requirements. Renewable energy resources, efficient management of the energy, saving distribution cost of energy, and cheaper availability of energy to end-users are some of the crucial issues in energy supply and management today. The distributed- network concept of Blockchain technology is having capability to modernize the energy generation and distribution sector. The energy industry is consistently catalyzed by innovations including rooftop solar, electric vehicles, communication among energy devices, smart metering, and energy cryptocurrency. Distributed ledger technology of Blockchain has more possibilities to expand the efficiencies for utility providers by finding the owners of grid materials. Blockchain offers exclusive solutions for renewable energy supply in addition to origin tracking. Blockchain technology is getting popular in many use cases around the world, which includes new representations with blockchain for energy marketplaces, real-time data management, renewable energy certificates, and moving carbon credits. Combined efforts from technology developers in energy supply fields, academicians, financial institutions, and government sectors to coordinate Blockchain with the energy sector is one of the smartest and spectacular technology innovations in recent times. The blockchain energy schemes are designing peer-to-peer energy markets. A peer-to-peer energy market is a distributed network of people who sell and buy surplus energy from other contributors. These energy markets help the common people by reducing control from traditional wholesale entities. This energy management is usually done with the help of Microgrids, also known as Smartgrids. End users can access prepaid energy, which can be done by easy mobile transactions. Many companies have connected communities to each other for creating Microgrids and visualize a bright future with entirely distributed peer-to-peer grids. The main advantages of Blockchain in the energy segment are cost reduction, environmental sustainability, more security, and transparency for stakeholders with the benefit of not compromising privacy. This work discusses the concept of Blockchain technology in brief, features of the Microgrid or Smartgrid, some useful use cases of energy Blockchain and benefits of application of Blockchain technology to Smartgrid operations in the following sections.