Energy Blockchain in Smart Communities: Towards Affordable Clean Energy Supply for the Built Environment

Abstract

The rapid growth of distributed renewable energy penetration is promoting the evolution of the energy system toward decentralization and decentralized and digitized smart grids. This study was based on energy blockchain, and developed a dual-biding mechanism based on the real-time energy surplus and demand in the local smart grid, which is expected to enable reliable, affordable, and clean energy supply in smart communities. In the proposed system, economic benefits could be achieved by replacing fossil-fuel-based electricity with the high penetration of affordable solar PV electricity. The reduction of energy surplus realized by distributed energy production and P2P energy trading, within the smart grid results in less transmission loss and lower requirements for costly upgrading of existing grids. By adopting energy blockchain and smart contract technologies, energy secure trading with a low risk of privacy leakage could be accommodated. The prototype is examined through a case study, and the feasibility and efficiency of the proposed mechanism are further validated by scenario analysis.