A Privacy-Preserving Blockchain Solution to Support Demand Response in Energy Trading

Abstract

Demand response consists in the modification of energy consumption by end users to attain specific effects on the electrical grid, namely reduce congestion and optimize the usage of renewable energy. When implemented with blockchain, demand response poses important privacy concerns since it generally needs the publication of sensitive information about users regarding their energy consumption. In this work, we devise a system to preserve privacy in such a scenario by using Secure Multiparty Computation (SMC) algorithms and a blockchain-based architecture with the goal of achieving both accountability and privacy.