Blockchain-assisted Decentralized Virtual Prosumer Grouping for P2P Energy Trading

Abstract

Energy trading systems have revolutionized by taking advantage of energy users who produce surplusenergy. In the cyberphysical energy sharing systems, the participation of such consumers who can also sell their residuum energy for profit, namely prosumers, is critical for the sustainable and efficient energy sharing procedure and requires improved prosumer management. The idea of grouping the prosumers for better profits is a promising approach for prosumer management which is currently carried out in centralized manner; that face trust, security and scalability issues. Hence, a strong tool that can protect the prosumer privacy; log the changes for audit purposes and eventually improve the performance of the system is necessary. This paper proposes a blockchain-assisted approach using smart contracts for improved scalability and decentralization of the prosumer grouping mechanism in the context of P2P energy trading. The results show around 38.7% improvement in the performance and scalability of the system.