A STUDY OF THE METHODOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS FOR IMPLEMENTING BLOCKCHAIN AND SMART CONTRACTS IN ELECTRIC POWER MICROGRIDS

Abstract

The subject of research covers the theoretical, methodological, and applied aspects of implementing blockchain technology and smart contracts into microgrid management systems, as well as the automation processes of energy resource exchange between participants of a distributed energy system. The purpose of this work is to investigate the methodological foundations for the application of blockchain and smart contracts in microgrids through the analysis of contemporary scientific research, systematization of approaches to consensus algorithm implementation, classification of smart contracts by application areas, and experimental verification of the proposed solutions. To achieve this goal, the following tasks were addressed: analyzing existing microgrid architectures and management methods; conducting a comparative analysis of consensus algorithms (PoW, PoS, PoA, PBFT, RAFT, etc.) regarding their applicability in private and public energy grids; developing a classification of smart contracts based on their application areas; and investigating software tools for implementing decentralized applications. Research Methods. The study employs system analysis methods to investigate microgrid architecture, comparative analysis to evaluate the efficiency of consensus algorithms, and classification methods for grouping smart contracts. For the practical part, computer modeling and experimental verification methods were used: smart contract development in Solidity, testing in the Remix IDE environment, and simulation of a local blockchain network using the Hardhat toolkit. Research results. The research systematized the methodological foundations for integrating blockchain into microgrids. It was determined that hybrid or private consensus models are most effective for energy trading within local communities. A classification of smart contracts was developed and justified, covering four levels: energy trading, monitoring, distributed management, and cybersecurity. The practical result is the implementation of the EnergyTrading smart contract, which successfully automates the process of listing offers and purchasing electricity, as confirmed by experiments in a local environment. The implementation of smart contracts allows for the creation of a reliable P2P platform for electricity trading without intermediaries, increasing economic efficiency for households. The functionality of the automated settlement mechanism was experimentally confirmed. At the same time, key challenges were identified: the limited scalability of existing blockchain solutions and the need to improve cyber defense against vulnerabilities in contract code. Further development requires adaptation of the legislative framework and modernization of the hardware components of energy grids.