With the transformation in smart grids, power grid companies are becoming increasingly dependent on data networks. Data networks are used to transport information and commands for optimizing power grid operations: Planning, generation, transportation, and distribution. Performing periodic security audits is one of the required tasks for securing networks, and we proposed in a previous work autoauditor, a system to achieve automatic auditing. It was designed according to the specific requirements of power grid companies, such as scaling with the huge number of heterogeneous equipment in power grid companies. Though pentesting and security audits are required for continuous monitoring, collaboration is of utmost importance to fight cyber threats. In this paper we work on the accountability of audit results and explore how the list of audit result records can be included in a blockchain, since blockchains are by design resistant to data modification. Moreover, blockchains endowed with smart contracts functionality boost the automation of both digital evidence gathering, audit, and controlled information exchange. To our knowledge, no such system exists. We perform throughput evaluation to assess the feasibility of the system and show that the system is viable for adaptation to the inventory systems of electrical companies.
Nallapaneni Manoj Kumar, Aneesh A. Chand, Maria Malvoni, Kushal A. Prasad · 7 authors
Smart grid (SG), an evolving concept in the modern power infrastructure, enables the two-way flow of electricity and data between the peers within the electricity system networks (ESN) and its clusters. The self-healing capabilities of SG allow the peers to become active partakers in ESN. In general, the SG is intended to replace the fossil fuel-rich conventional grid with the distributed energy resources (DER) and pools numerous existing and emerging know-hows like information and digital communications technologies together to manage countless operations. With this, the SG will able to “detect, react, and pro-act” to changes in usage and address multiple issues, thereby ensuring timely grid operations. However, the “detect, react, and pro-act” features in DER-based SG can only be accomplished at the fullest level with the use of technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and the Blockchain (BC). The techniques associated with AI include fuzzy logic, knowledge-based systems, and neural networks. They have brought advances in controlling DER-based SG. The IoT and BC have also enabled various services like data sensing, data storage, secured, transparent, and traceable digital transactions among ESN peers and its clusters. These promising technologies have gone through fast technological evolution in the past decade, and their applications have increased rapidly in ESN. Hence, this study discusses the SG and applications of AI, IoT, and BC. First, a comprehensive survey of the DER, power electronics components and their control, electric vehicles (EVs) as load components, and communication and cybersecurity issues are carried out. Second, the role played by AI-based analytics, IoT components along with energy internet architecture, and the BC assistance in improving SG services are thoroughly discussed. This study revealed that AI, IoT, and BC provide automated services to peers by monitoring real-time information about the ESN, thereby enhancing reliability, availability, resilience, stability, security, and sustainability.
Sabah Suhail, Rasheed Hussain, Raja Jurdak, Choong Seon Hong
Industrial processes rely on sensory data for critical decision-making processes. Extracting actionable insights from the collected data calls for an infrastructure that can ensure the trustworthiness of data. To this end, we envision a blockchain-based framework for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) to address the issues of data management and security. Once the data collected from trustworthy sources are recorded in the blockchain, product lifecycle events can be fed into data-driven systems for process monitoring, diagnostics, and optimized control. In this regard, we leverage digital twins (DTs) that can draw intelligent conclusions from the data by identifying the faults and recommending precautionary measures ahead of critical events. Furthermore, we discuss the integration of DTs and blockchain to target key challenges of disparate data repositories, untrustworthy data dissemination, and fault diagnosis. Finally, we identify outstanding challenges faced by the IIoT and future research directions while leveraging blockchain and DTs.
Large-scale power systems are composed of regional utilities with assets that stream sensor readings in real time. In order to detect cyberattacks, the globally acquired, real-time sensor data needs to be analyzed in a centralized fashion. However, owing to operational constraints, such a centralized sharing mechanism turns out to be a major obstacle. In this article, we propose a blockchain-based decentralized framework for detecting coordinated replay attacks with full privacy of sensor data. We develop a Bayesian inference mechanism employing locally reported attack probabilities that is tailor made for a blockchain framework. We compare our framework to a traditional decentralized algorithm based on the broadcast gossip framework both theoretically as well as empirically. With the help of experiments on a private Ethereum blockchain, we show that our approach achieves good detection quality and significantly outperforms gossip-driven approaches in terms of accuracy, timeliness, and scalability.
H. Ariza, Juan Carlos Martínez-Santos, Esteban Payares, M.F. Medina · 6 authors
Large penetration of renewable distributed energy resources, as well as the effective integration of storage systems and electric vehicles, are some of the required strategies to reduce the impact of the energy sector on greenhouse gas emissions. Microgrids offer an efficient platform to facilitate the integration of these systems, however, the increased complexity this strategy comes with, requires the use of sophisticated, reliable, and secure monitoring and control systems. The outbreak of cryptocurrency technologies has drawn particular attention, especially, the underlying Blockchain technology. The decentralized structure of this technology enables implementing control strategies, parameters monitoring, and business processes in microgrids. The aim of this work is to present the development of a framework to monitor operational parameters from an islanded microgrid. To build the Blockchain network, the Hyperledger-Fabric development platform was used. To simulate the behavior of the microgrid, an object-oriented open-source library using the Modelica modeling language was used to model a DC microgrid. The performance of the architecture was evaluated through operational parameters such as the difficulty and the number of nodes. Results suggest that changes in these factors can affect significantly the transaction time. The proposed architecture can be used as a basis to study Blockchain communication effects in smart grids and their development.
In the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), peer-to-peer (P2P) distributed energy (DE) transactions exist in various scenarios. This paper attempts to improve the intelligence, real-timeliness, and security of the direct transaction between DE generation companies (DEGCs) and users, and reduce the default frequency of distributed power (DP) transactions. For these purposes, a P2P DE transaction model for the IIoT was proposed based on blockchain. Firstly, a blockchain-based distributed energy peer-to-peer transaction framework is constructed, which is more suitable for generalized energy transactions based on typical transaction scenarios of the IIoT. Using credit value evaluation and smart contracts to ensure the transparency, openness, and non-tampering of credit scores. On this basis, the energy currency reward mechanism is used to promote the trustworthiness of transaction nodes and maintain transaction security. Finally, the P2P direct transaction based on credit value was designed to improve the transaction efficiency and security. Through case analysis, the DE transaction model for the IIoT, which is based on the credit value of the blockchain, supports fast and frequent energy transactions, as it overcomes the confirmation delays of energy blockchain transactions. The proposed model improves the efficiency of DE transactions in the IIoT, effectively suppresses default frequency, and maintains the order of DE market in the IIoT.
Nowadays, the adoption of demand response programs is still lagging due to the prosumers' lack of awareness, fear of losing control and privacy of energy data, etc. Programs decentralization, by adopting promising technologies such as blockchain, may bring significant advantages in terms of transparency, openness, improved control, and increased active participation of prosumers. Nevertheless, even though in general the transparency of the public blockchain is a desirable feature in the energy domain, the prosumer energy data is sensitive and rather private, thus, a privacy-preserving solution is required. In this paper, we present a decentralized implementation of demand response programs on top of the public blockchain which deals with the privacy of the prosumer's energy data using zero-knowledge proofs and validates on the blockchain the prosumer's activity inside the program using smart contracts. Prosumer energy data is kept private, while on the blockchain it is stored a zero-knowledge proof that is generated by the prosumer itself allowing the implementation of functions to validate potential deviations from the request and settle prosumer's activity. The solution evaluation results are promising in terms of ensuring the privacy of prosumer energy data stored in the public blockchain and detecting potential data inconsistencies.
Chenxi Jia, Hongyuan Ding, Chuanjin Zhang, Xi Zhang
In modern buildings, the intelligent building energy management system (IBEMS) faces several problems with its centralized architecture: the difficulty in the networking between end devices, the lack of flexibility, and the limited sharing of underlying information. To overcome these problems, this paper probes into the framework of the wireless sensor network (WSN), and designed a network model of the IBEMS. Next, the security of blockchain technology was fully examined, and a dynamic key management strategy was proposed based on the blockchain for the IBEMS. The feasibility of the proposed plan was verified through experiments. The experimental results show that the proposed plan reduces the data storage time and space of each sensor, and optimizes the control of the IBEMS. The research results provide a reference for setting up a safe and reliable IBEMS based on spatial distribution, and help promote blockchain technology in other scenarios of the UPIoT.
In today’s modern energy sector, driven more and more towards decentralization, which includes many smaller energy producers rather than huge government projects, security against cyber-attacks is becoming more crucial for the energy grid. Since many small energy plants do not have the resources to finance very expensive existing cyber-security systems, they often have no security system in place at all. Although with small energy producers, the risks of being under attack are not as devastating as in a huge power plants, they still pose a serious threat to the energy system and to the supply of electricity to whole regions. Moreover, in the era of technology, such cyber-attacks could be carried out simultaneously at many locations, thus risking the lack of electricity to larger areas. Since there was a clearly identified need for such an instrument, the SPEAR consortium, started to develop tailor made solution for different types of actors in the energy sector, to prevent such occurrences and help secure the energy system. One of the use cases, investigated in the project, is a real operating hydro power plant in the mountain area of Bulgaria called Leshnitsa, which will be one of the four sites to first test the functionality of the finished product. The plant had no previous cyber-security system in place and had already experienced one attack, where one of the computers in the plant was hacked and a ransom was demanded from the attackers to unlock it. Exactly events like this one are proof, that the energy sector has a need to protect the growing number of small independent actors in the energy system..
Scott Eisele, Carlos Barreto, Abhishek Dubey, Xenofon Koutsoukos · 7 authors
The emergence of blockchains and smart contracts has renewed interest in electrical cyberphysical systems, especially transactive energy systems. To address the associated challenges, we present TRANSAX, a blockchain-based transactive energy system that provides an efficient, safe, and privacy-preserving market built on smart contracts.
Smart Grids and Industry 4.0 (I4.0) are neither a dream nor a near-future thing anymore, rather it is happening now. The integration of more and more embedded systems and IoT devices is pushing smart grids and I4.0 forward at a breakneck speed. To cope up with this, the modification of age-old SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems in terms of decentralization, near-real-time operation, security, and privacy is necessary. In this context, blockchain technology has the potential of providing not only these essential features of the data acquisition process of future SCADA systems but also many other useful add-ons. On the other side, it is evident that various type of security breach tends to take place more during any economic turmoil. These can cause even more serious devastation to the global economy and human life. Thus, it is necessary to make our industries robust, automated, and resilient with secured and immutable data acquiring systems. This paper deals with the implementation scopes of blockchain in the data acquisition part of SCADA systems in the area of the smart grid and I4.0. There are several consensus mechanisms to support blockchain integration in the field of cryptocurrencies, vehicular networks, healthcare systems, e-commerce, etc. But little attention has been paid to developing efficient and easy-to-implement consensus mechanisms in the field of blockchain-enabled SCADA systems. From this perspective, a novel consensus mechanism, which we call PoRCH (Proof of Random Count in Hashes), with a customized mining node selection scheme has been proposed in this paper. Also, a small-scale prototype of a blockchain-enabled data acquisition system has been developed. The performance evaluation of the implemented prototype shows the benefits of blockchain technology.
Blockchains help to build trust among a decentralized network of unknown and untrusted peers who need to agree on a common protocol and trust the correctness and compatibility of the corresponding software implementations. The software engineering discipline cannot ignore this trend, as it fundamentally affects the way software is designed, developed, deployed, and delivered.1 As with the emergence of the Internet, software smart contracts for solving new classes of real-world problems, as opposed to introducing blockchains everywhere, where they may be unnecessary, or provide an inefficient and environmentally unsound solution.4
Voltage controls the majority of the processes around us, starting from lighting an incandescent lamp to running huge machines in industries. Therefore, voltage monitoring becomes essential, which demands efficient measurement and storage of voltage data. However, there is hardly any system till date that fulfils both the goals of voltage monitoring and voltage data storage. To achieve this goal, we propose the application of the Internet of Things along with the server-based framework and Distributed Ledger Technology to build systems for smart voltage monitoring. Two models - a centralised model and a decentralised model have been presented and analysed thoroughly in this paper. The centralised model is built on client-server architecture, whereas the decentralised model is based on a peer-to-peer architecture. Blockchain and InterPlanetary File System have been used for the implementation of the decentralised system. Potential improvements to make these systems robust have also been discussed. The methods proposed in this paper for voltage monitoring are novel; ensure efficient data storage and can be used for IoT data storage of any form.
As a future energy system, the smart grid is designed to improve the efficiency of traditional power systems while providing more stable and reliable services. However, this efficient and reliable service relies on collecting and analyzing users’ electricity consumption data frequently, which induces various security and privacy threats. To address these challenges, we propose a double-blockchain assisted secure and anonymous data aggregation scheme for fog-enabled smart grid named DA-SADA. Specifically, we design a three-tier architecture-based data aggregation framework by integrating fog computing and the blockchain, which provides strong support for achieving efficient and secure data collection in smart grids. Subsequently, we develop a secure and anonymous data aggregation mechanism with low computational overhead by jointly leveraging the Paillier encryption, batch aggregation signature and anonymous authentication. In particular, the system achieves fine-grained data aggregation and provides effective support for power dispatching and price adjustment by the designed double-blockchain and two-level data aggregation. Finally, the superiority of the proposed scheme is illustrated by a series of security and computation cost analyses.
Anish Jindal, Jakob Kronawitter, Ramona Kühn, Martin Bor · 10 authors
Abstract With the increased penetration of distributed renewable energy sources (DRES) in the grid, new pathways are required to keep the electricity distribution system stable. The provision of ancillary services (AS) by the DRES can contribute in this regard. However, it is necessary to communicate the need for AS from the third party providers such as distribution system operator (DSO) to the DRES in an efficient and scalable manner. To this end, a flexible information and communication technology (ICT) architecture is presented in this paper, and the requirements for the architecture are elaborated. We argue that this architecture is capable of supporting the present and future needs of electricity distribution networks. To illustrate its utility and effectiveness, an accounting use case for DSOs has been presented; it describes a remuneration scheme for the AS provision. A dashboard has been developed to enable communication via this architecture and to allow control of the grid. In addition, a distributed ledger technology for the realization of accounting has been analysed with respect to its scalability and performance capabilities.
The security problems of smart contracts have drawn extensive attention due to the enormous financial losses caused by vulnerabilities. Existing methods on smart contract vulnerability detection heavily rely on fixed expert rules, leading to low detection accuracy. In this paper, we explore using graph neural networks (GNNs) for smart contract vulnerability detection. Particularly, we construct a contract graph to represent both syntactic and semantic structures of a smart contract function. To highlight the major nodes, we design an elimination phase to normalize the graph. Then, we propose a degree-free graph convolutional neural network (DR-GCN) and a novel temporal message propagation network (TMP) to learn from the normalized graphs for vulnerability detection. Extensive experiments show that our proposed approach significantly outperforms state-of-the-art methods in detecting three different types of vulnerabilities.
Industry 4.0 technological expansion and the multiple accesses to the diverse Smart Grid domains (power networks, control systems, market, customer premises) entail the need to provide efficient interconnection mechanisms with connection from anywhere, at any time and in anyhow. However, this type of requirement should not only consist in imposing interoperability solutions between entities and domains, but also in searching the way to justify and trace connections (how, when, where, who) for future governance or auditing actions. This paper, therefore, presents a three layer-based interconnection architecture and several interconnection strategies, all of them adapting the traditional policy decision and enforcement approaches together with the blockchain technology to manage reliable and secure connections among entities, processes and critical resources. With this architecture in mind, the paper also analyzes the coupling level of the blockchain technology, and explores which interconnection strategy is more suitable for Smart Grid domains and their control systems.
Dayadi Lakshmaiah, L. Koteswara Rao, R. Yadgiri Rao, I. Satya Narayana · 5 authors
Data security for IOT devices is very import aspect these days as the world is moving towards digitalization. Consider a smart energy meter which provides a way to monitor the energy consumption at home, data security in such smart meter reading is very important. If the Power reading signals are tampered, then it may cause serious economic loss for the authorities. The personal information infringement of user can occur at the database and may fall in the hands of unethical persons. In order to address these issues in this paper we propose to use a permissioned blockchain network. Blockchain maintains time stamped ledger records that are very hard to tamper. Every transaction is recorded and distributed across many participant nodes, these records are immutable because they have blocks of data which are linked to each other with strong cryptographic hash. The blockchain network is built using hyperledger fabric, where all the participant nodes are registered and only registered nodes involve in consensus process of transaction. In fabric, MSP (membership service provider) identifies the identity of the participant nodes through X.509 digital certificates issued by certificate authority. Along with creation of blockchain network for the application, a mobile client, a web client, an Arduino client and web server is created. The Arduino client is the hardware module that has an energy meter (SDM120) measuring the energy consumption of the user and sends this information serially to NODEMCU. NODEMCU POSTs the read energy details to the web server at particular api, web server POSTs the details to the Blockchain Network, where transactions undergoes consensus to add this information to blockchain ledger. Now data is decentralized and every peer node has the local copy of ledger. The updated information can be queried and seen on the web Client and Mobile client user interfaces. Anonymity-enhanced blockchain has been implemented to avoid the disclosure of personal information or data. Also performance analysis of the application is carried out for number of sequential requests and concurrent requests from many users using different tools.
Energy systems around the globe nowadays are undergoing a rapid transformation in their conventional structures that are vital from an environmental, economic, and social perspective. The driving forces behind the shift to the new era of the energy, also known as Energy 4.0, are the so-called 3 D’s: Decarbonization, Digitalization, and Decentralization. \n \nThe blockchain technology, which comes as a result of digitalization, is considered by many experts a transformative force for the energy sector. More specifically, it is believed that it can be a direct driver for the decentralization of energy systems as well as an indirect one for their decarbonization and further digitalization. This is due to the technology’s most prominent technical capacities, namely, transparency, security, and decentralization. All these combined have provided practical use cases, with the most widely-known being peer-to-peer power trading. On this occasion, consumers are enabled to trade the surplus amount of the energy they produce (e.g. with photovoltaics) with other consumers in decentralized energy networks. Such a solution can contribute to the decentralization of energy systems and make them more democratic and inclusive. \n \nMost of the blockchain applications in the energy sector today have been directed towards the electric power industry, with more than half of blockchain use cases focusing on decentralized energy trading and energy projects financing. In contrast, the application of blockchain in the petroleum industry is still in its infancy. In the oil and gas sector, new technologies have to pass through several phases before mass adoption occurs, due to high costs and increased probability of component failures. Another deterrent is the particular nature of operations in the industry. For instance, oil is traded as a commodity on a global level and is impacted by external factors such as geopolitics, while electricity is specific to a regional level. Despite the sluggish adaptability of the industry, more recently, a number of blockchain initiatives from oil and gas majors have been launched. \n \nRegardless of those advances and the fact that there is a growing number of startup companies developing similar solutions, blockchain is still in an exploratory phase of development. That is the main reason for it not being widely adopted by large industry players or in large-scale applications, which could otherwise help it grow faster and be established as a standard technology for particular applications. It will only become apparent in the next five to ten years, at a time when blockchain is expected to reach maturity from a technical standpoint, whether it will be a revolutionary technology that will bring about a revolution in the structure and processes of the energy industry. \n \nThis thesis aims at reviewing the main characteristics of blockchain technology, and based on its technical advantages, analyze the role it has played up to this day in the transformation of the energy industry and, more specifically, in the electric power and oil & gas sectors. In addition, a case study is presented that aims at showing how blockchain can provide solutions for the Greek energy ecosystem.
USDOE Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (OE), Mariola Rodríguez, Peter L. Fuhr, Gary Hahn · 6 authors
This paper provides descriptions of the key components of different distributed ledger technology platforms.Distributed ledger technology (DLT) allows for distribution of databases among different organizations and devices.The platforms use cryptographically linked "blocks" to store and verify transactional information between these organizations.DLT increases data security, data integrity, trust among its participants.Different organizations are looking to deploy this distributed and decentralized approach to avoid the single-point-of-failure vulnerabilities associated with centralized data repositories.In this study we examine twelve different DLT platforms.There is agreement within the community that of all the platforms considered here, Hyperledger and Ethereum are the most mature when it comes to privacy and permissions.These DLT platforms are being used for applications such as transactive energy, health care, and the food and goods supply chain.However, further development is required to realize the full promise of DLT.Our assessment includes a general description of each DLT and its key characteristics.Such characteristics include consensus protocol and cryptography used, public vs. private, and permissioned or permissionless.The selection and implementation of a DLT architecture depends heavily on the use case and performance requirements.During this research we found key parameters to measure performance and existing tools for assessment.Four different parameters were identified 1) consensus, 2) throughput, 3) latency, and 4) scalability.The architectures of Hyperledger Caliper and Blockbench are described as different performance assessment frameworks.From this preliminary study it is evident that there are dissimilarities on the performance assessments methods developers and users are characterizing DLT architectures.The purpose of this paper is to identify key parameters to test performance, tools that are being used and provide information on results from previous studies.
Contract-for-Difference financial instruments are available to renewable electricity generators in day-ahead electricity markets to allow them to hedge against revenue risk. Traditional CfDs while designed to hedge revenue risk, introduce other new risks such as counterparty credit, margining and third-party risks. We therefore propose a novel financial instrument - an Ethereum blockchain-based dual escrow smart contract, to serve as the mediator in a CfD agreement between a renewable electricity generator and supplier. This financial instrument addresses hedging related risks that result from traditional CfD agreements in day-ahead electricity markets. In this paper, we design the logic of the financial instrument, translate this logic to smart contract codes and demonstrate its expected performance. Overall, the proposed financial instrument has the benefits of reducing hedging related risks inherent in traditional CfDs. Likewise, it enables secure, efficient, cost-effective, consistent, reliable, transparent and frictionless transactions between contracting parties in a CfD agreement.
The electricity industry has always been under scrutiny in order to improve the quality of electricity supply, measurement and billing services to have the at most user transparency, while providing these services with the highest efficiency. Although many solutions have emerged, of which the smart meter was considered a viable option, it was quick to perish under the prodigious complications with the real-life feasibilities. El DApp- An electricity power consumption tracking application solution, harnessing both the IoT and Blockchain utilities to provide a decentralized and secure recording mechanism, that provides an improved architecture to the smart meter is proposed in this article. The El DApp provides a high security and cost efficient decentralized live electricity power consumption recording of the user that is maintained by a Raspberry Pi based Ethereum network.
Ronghua Xu, Yu Chen, Erik Blasch, Alexander Aved · 6 authors
Advancement in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), dynamic data driven application systems (DDDAS), and hierarchical cloud-fog-edge computing paradigm provide opportunities for enhancing multi-domain systems performance. As one example that represents multi-domain scenario, a "fly-by-feel" system utilizes DDDAS framework to support autonomous operations and improve maneuverability, safety and fuel efficiency. The DDDAS "fly-by-feel" avionics system can enhance multi-domain coordination to support domain specific operations. However, conventional enabling technologies rely on a centralized manner for data aggregation, sharing and security policy enforcement, and it incurs critical issues related to bottleneck of performance, data provenance and consistency. Inspired by the containerized microservices and blockchain technology, this paper introduces BLEM, a hybrid BLockchain-Enabled secure Microservices fabric to support decentralized, secure and efficient data fusion and multi-domain operations for avionics systems. Leveraging the fine-granularity and loose-coupling features of the microservices architecture, multidomain operations and security functionalities are decoupled into multiple containerized microservices. A hybrid blockchain fabric based on two-level committee consensus protocols is proposed to enable decentralized security architecture and support immutability, auditability and traceability for data provenience in existing multi-domain avionics system. Our evaluation results show the feasibility of the proposed BLEM mechanism to support decentralized security service and guarantee immutability, auditability and traceability for data provenience across domain boundaries.