The sheer growth of electricity demand and the rising number of electricity-hungry devices have highlighted and elevated the need of addressing the demand response management problem in residential smart grid systems. In this article, a novel contract-theoretic demand response management (DRM) framework in residential smart grid systems is introduced based on the principles of labor economics. The residential households produce and consume electricity, acting as dynamic prosumers. Initially, the prosumers' personal electricity generation and consumption characteristics are captured by introducing the concept of prosumers' types. Then, the prosumers' and the electricity market's profit is depicted in representative utility functions. Based on the labor economics principles, Contract Theory is adopted to design the interactions among the electricity market, which offers personalized rewards to the prosumers in order to buy electricity at an announced price, and the prosumers, who offer their “effort” by paying for the purchased electricity. The contract-theoretic DRM problem is formulated as a maximization problem of the electricity market's utility, while jointly guaranteeing the optimal satisfaction of the prosumers, under the scenarios of complete and incomplete information from the electricity market's perspective regarding knowing or not the prosumers' types, respectively. The corresponding optimization problems are solved following a convex optimization approach and the optimal contracts, i.e., rewards and efforts, are determined. Detailed numerical results obtained via modeling and simulation, highlight the key operation features and superiority of the proposed framework.
Giuseppe Sciumè, Emilio José García, Pierluigi Gallo, Eleonora Riva Sanseverino · 6 authors
The use of Distributed Ledger Technologies such as Blockchain for certifying Demand Response services allows for the creation of a distributed system in which customers can communicate with the system operator to provide their flexibility, in a secure, transparent and traceable way. Blockchain technology also supports incentive mechanisms for users taking part in the service through the generation of utility tokens to recognize the user's contribution. This paper presents the experimental test of a novel methodology for Demand Response programs implementation by using the Blockchain technology. The latter is employed for defining a distributed Demand Response service and a new system for its tracing and certification. For this work, a Smart Contract has been conceived and written to execute Demand Response events, calculate users' baseline, compute the support provided by each user towards the fulfilment of the requested load curve modification and remunerate each user with utility tokens proportionally to their contribution. To test the methodology, a Hyperledger Fabric network and a Smart Contract were deployed on four nodes of the Microgrid Laboratory of the Department of Energy Technology at Aalborg University (DK). Subsequently, a realistic scenario comprising two consumer nodes was developed using power electronic converters for generating the household profiles and Smart Meters for the measurement of the consumption profiles. Theoretical and experimental results show the feasibility of Distributed Ledger Technologies in smart grids management with a minimum investment in new hardware while enabling the active participation of customers in Demand Response more transparently and fairly.
Rabiya Khalid, Nadeem Javaid, Ahmad Almogren, Muhammad Umar Javed · 6 authors
Local energy generation and peer to peer (P2P) energy trading in the local market can reduce the energy consumption cost, emission of harmful gases (as renewable energy sources are used to generate energy at user's premises) and increase the smart grid resilience. However, local energy trading with peers can have trust and privacy issues. A centralized system can be used to manage this energy trading but it increases the overall cost of the system and also faces several issues. In this paper, to implement a hybrid P2P energy trading market, a blockchain-based system is proposed. It is fully decentralized and allows the market members to interact with each other and trade energy without involving a third party. Smart contracts play a very important role in the blockchain-based energy trading market. They contain all the necessary rules for energy trading. We have proposed three smart contracts to implement the hybrid electricity trading market. The market members interact with the main smart contract, which requests P2P and prosumer to grid smart contracts for further processing. The main objectives of this paper are to propose a model to implement an efficient hybrid energy trading market while reducing cost and peak to average ratio of electricity.
Tarek Medalel Masaud, Jonathan Warner, Ehab F. El‐Saadany
Interconnected microgrids are becoming a building block in smart systems. Initiating secure and efficient energy trading mechanisms among networked microgrids for reliability and economic mutual benefits have become a crucial task. Recently, integrating blockchain technologies into the energy sector have gained significant amount of interest, e.g. transactive grid. This paper proposes a two-layer secured smart contract-based energy trading mechanism to allow microgrids to establish coalitions, adjust the electricity-trading price, and achieve transparent and decentralized secure transactions without intervention of a third trusted party. Since reliability benefits are main drivers of microgrids operation in islanded mode, a new decentralized smart contract based-energy trading model for islanded networked microgrids is proposed in the first layer with an objective to achieve demand generation balance. In the second layer, and to achieve a higher security, all executed contracts are verified and saved in a blockchain based on a new developed two-phase consensus method that utilizes practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (pBFT), and a modified Proof of Stake (PoS). Simulations are conducted in Python environment to validate the proposed energy trading model.
Konstantin Mironov, Sergey Trishin, Vadim Kartak, Amir Makhmutov · 5 authors
In this article we look through the task of ensuring availability and integrity of information processed within the Internet of things (IoT) networks. Such networks include sensors, actuators and other devices that are data sources, gateways and data stream hubs that transmit information from sensors to the Internet, and servers that store the received data, process them and provide access to users. We propose to apply distributed ledger technology (DLT) to ensure integrity and accessibility of data in IoT, which is why it is proposed. As an example, we consider DLT application for data protection in the energy industry. We consider a system for processing and storing data on the production and consumption of electricity in a decentralized electricity network. A review of existing projects related to the use of distributed ledger technologies in the energy sector is carried out. However, an important obstacle for using DLT in IoT is that IoT devices often do not have the required computing power. This paper indicates further ways of research that are associated with overcoming this obstacle in the application of distributed ledger technologies in the energy field.
This paper is a review of literature, resources and advances in peer to peer ledger technology adoption and not just the evolution of ledger technology in power sector. It also introduces the concept of transition architectures from the field of enterprise architecture to fill the gap in adoption. It reviews the possibility of de-centralising energy optimally and the possibility of using an architecture roadmap of milestones (transition states) via transition architectures to enhance adoption rates. The paper evaluates features of distributed ledgers. It identifies the core features that can be introduced independent of each other, thereby making a minimal usable product in each transition state via transition architectures with a view of target state that would encompass all core features. It covers engaging the current participants (generators, transmission, distributors, metering, retailers, prosumers, banks, regulators and others); and how a gradual evolving nature via transition architectures would increase adoption due to smooth transition as the roles of current participants evolve while the market dynamics re-orchestrates. A discussion and proposal for a custom distributed ledger framework for energy domain balancing decentralisation, immutability, verification and transparency in a gradual manner; to address privacy, compliance, regulations and peer to peer trading is presented.
Serkan Seven, Gang Yao, Ahmet Soran, Ahmet Önen · 5 authors
A novel Peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading scheme for a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) is proposed by using Smart Contracts on Ethereum Blockchain Platform. The P2P energy trading is the recent trend the power society is keen to adopt carrying out several trial projects as it eases to generate and share the renewable energy sources in a distributed manner inside local community. Blockchain and smart contracts are the up-and-coming phenomena in the scene of the information technology used to be considered as the cutting-edge research topics in power systems. Earlier works on P2P energy trading including and excluding blockchain technology were focused mainly on the optimization algorithm, Information and Communication Technology, and Internet of Things. Therefore, the financial aspects of P2P trading in a VPP framework is focused and in that regard a P2P energy trading mechanism and bidding platform are developed. The proposed scheme is based on public blockchain network and auction is operated by smart contract addressing both cost and security concerns. The smart contract implementation and execution in a VPP framework including bidding, withdrawal, and control modules developments are the salient feature of this work. The proposed architecture is validated using realistic data with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) environment of Ropsten Test Network.
A. Sheikh, V. Kamuni, Ahtisham Urooj, Sushama Wagh · 6 authors
To mitigate the problems of demand-supply mismatch in the future grid the solution of renewable energy source (RES) integration results in a bidirectional flow of information and transactions, which are prone to different kinds of cyber attacks, especially in energy trading where the security of financial transactions is of most concern. Electric vehicle (EV) having the advantage of mobility can play a significant role in maintaining demand-supply balance at any location unlike their peers (conventional compensator). For deciding entire system security, securing EVs charging-discharging transactions at all charging stations or connecting points is most important. The system can be made more secure against cyber-attacks with the introduction of the blockchain framework. Hence, in view of secured transactions, the paper focuses on the energy trading process between EVs and distribution network (DN) in a Byzantine based blockchain consensus framework. During peak load period DN initiates the energy trading process by demanding additional power from the EVs. This process of energy trading results in energy and information exchange which needs to be secured through blockchain from vulnerable attacks and threats. Possible scenarios of various cyber-attacks on different nodes of the system are visualized in the form of false data. To highlight the application of blockchain, the Byzantine general problem framework is used which states that for successful attack 33% of information is to be manipulated, in other words, decreasing the probability of attack confirms the system security. Numerical results based on various operating scenarios for the standard IEEE 33 bus system are in agreement with the Byzantine consensus problem indicating improvement in system security.
Smart grid (SG) is an emerging technology which provides many services to the end users and utilities, such as load management, frequency regulation, and grid stability. Although many solutions exist to provide these services in a secure manner, but these solutions are not adequate keeping in view of the heavy cryptographic primitives execution on these devices. Hence, in this article, GUARDIAN, a blockchain-based secure demand response management scheme is presented so as to take energy trading decisions securely for managing the overall load of residential, commercial, and industrial sectors. In GUARDIAN, the miner nodes, which are block verifiers, are selected using their power consumption and processing power. These nodes are responsible for authenticating the energy transactions in SG. The energy transaction is initialized by an end user which creates the block of transaction to trade the energy. The miner nodes then validate these blocks and adds these in the blockchain. The successful energy trade occurs only for the blocks which are in the blockchain. The proposed scheme is lightweight in terms of communication and computation costs. Moreover, the results obtained demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed scheme for secure demand response management in the SG.
While key negotiation schemes, such as those based on Diffie–Hellman, have been the subject of ongoing research, designing an efficient and security scheme remains challenging. In this paper, we propose a novel key negotiation scheme based on blockchain, which can be deployed in blockchain-enabled contexts such as data sharing or facilitating electric transactions between vehicles (e.g., unmanned vehicles). We propose three candidates for flexible selection, namely, key exchanges via transaction currency values through value channels (such as the amount in transactions), automated key exchanges through static scripts,and dynamic scripts, which can not only guarantee key availability with timeliness but also defend against MITM (man-in-the-middle) attacks, packet-dropping attacks, and decryption failure attacks.
Modern power systems depend on cyber-physical systems to link physical devices and control technologies. A major concern in the implementation of smart power networks is to minimize the risk of data privacy violation (e.g., by adversaries using data poisoning and inference attacks). In this article, we propose a privacy-preserving framework to achieve both privacy and security in smart power networks. The framework includes two main modules: a two-level privacy module and an anomaly detection module. In the two-level privacy module, an enhanced-proof-of-work-technique-based blockchain is designed to verify data integrity and mitigate data poisoning attacks, and a variational autoencoder is simultaneously applied for transforming data into an encoded format for preventing inference attacks. In the anomaly detection module, a long short-term memory deep learning technique is used for training and validating the outputs of the two-level privacy module using two public datasets. The results highlight that the proposed framework can efficiently protect data of smart power networks and discover abnormal behaviors, in comparison to several state-of-the-art techniques.
Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESSs) are an integral part of a sustainable and resilient smart grid. The security of such critical cyber-physical infrastructure is considered as a major priority for both industry and academia. In this paper, we propose a new distributed smart-contract based control approach of BESSs to enable collaborative and secure operations among them. We present a comprehensive discussion on how control strategies can be implemented as smart contracts and deployed on a distributed network of BESSs nodes in order to operate these storage systems according to secure consensus. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, we analyze the vulnerabilities of BESSs when controlled according to traditional schemes vs. smart-contract enabled control. Simulation results show that if individual BESSs achieve a certain maximum threshold of exploitability, then the network of distributed BESSs is more robust to cyber-attacks in smart contract-defined control.
Muhammad Baqer Mollah, Jun Zhao, Dusit Niyato, Kwok‐Yan Lam · 8 authors
Due to the unique features and characteristics of blockchain technology, its applications have expanded across various sectors, including finance, banking, supply chains, and smart grids (SGs). Blockchain ensures security and trust in transactions without requiring a third party, making it particularly valuable in decentralized systems. This paper explores the integration of blockchain technology into SG systems. It begins with a comprehensive review of conventional and smart power grids, identifying the key challenges modern SGs face, particularly issues related to trust and fraud. An in-depth analysis of blockchain technology follows, highlighting its potential, advantages, and defining characteristics. The study then examines several blockchain-based SG applications and provides a comparative analysis of prior research. The findings of this review illuminate the critical role of blockchain in enhancing SG performance by addressing trust and fraud prevention challenges. Furthermore, this research has significant implications for the energy sector, as it underscores the potential of blockchain to revolutionize SGs through increased security, transparency, and efficiency. By providing a foundation for future studies, this paper aims to guide the development of unified blockchain frameworks that address scalability, privacy, and energy management, paving the way for a more secure and efficient decentralized energy system
Tejasvi Alladi, Vinay Chamola, Joel J. P. C. Rodrigues, S. A. Kozlov
With the integration of Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things, the smart grid is being projected as a solution for the challenges regarding electricity supply in the future. However, security and privacy issues in the consumption and trading of electricity data pose serious challenges in the adoption of the smart grid. To address these challenges, blockchain technology is being researched for applicability in the smart grid. In this paper, important application areas of blockchain in the smart grid are discussed. One use case of each area is discussed in detail, suggesting a suitable blockchain architecture, a sample block structure and the potential blockchain technicalities employed in it. The blockchain can be used for peer-to-peer energy trading, where a credit-based payment scheme can enhance the energy trading process. Efficient data aggregation schemes based on the blockchain technology can be used to overcome the challenges related to privacy and security in the grid. Energy distribution systems can also use blockchain to remotely control energy flow to a particular area by monitoring the usage statistics of that area. Further, blockchain-based frameworks can also help in the diagnosis and maintenance of smart grid equipment. We also discuss several commercial implementations of blockchain in the smart grid. Finally, various challenges to be addressed for integrating these two technologies are discussed.
J.R. James, Daniel Hawthorne, Katherine Duncan, Aaron St. Leger · 6 authors
Power grids around the world have experienced a growing number of malicious cyber attacks. This paper provides an overview of recent use of the Hyperledger Fabric distributed operating system to prototype use of a permissioned blockchain consensus algorithm to trust shared state estimation and control data and another effort to alter local sensor data to destroy the integrity of the shared data. The paper also provides justification for an experiment to prototype use of Babble, a peer-to-peer network plugin using the hashgraph consensus algorithm, to share the state estimation and control data through transactions recorded in a hashgraph. A key claim of the hashgraph documentation, which is unsubstantiated without a proper academic analysis, is that the algorithm is asynchronous Byzantine fault tolerance (ABFT). Also, while the Hyperledger Fabric implementation supports thousands of transactions per second, the hashgraph algorithm documentation claims orders of magnitude more. Our experiment seeks to measure the hashgraph transaction speed and determine its suitability for improving the resilience of wide area control of the smart grid. The previous resilience research of the Anomaly Detection of Cyber Physical Systems (ADCPS) team includes research into inadvertent cyber and physical failures as well as malicious attacks. We conclude with some speculations concerning the potential impact of fast, fair, and secure sharing of data across a network of blockchains potentially interfaced using hashgraph distributed ledger technology (DLT).
Γεώργιος Σπαθούλας, Nikos Giachoudis, Georgios-Paraskevas Damiris, Georgios Theodoridis
Internet of Things is one of the most significant latest developments in computer science. It is common for modern computing infrastructures to partially consist of numerous low power devices that are characterized by high diversity in both hardware and software. Existing security models, approaches and solutions are not able to sufficiently protect such systems. In this paper we propose the use of lightweight agents installed at multiple internet of things (IoT) installations (e.g., smart-homes), in order to collaboratively detect distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks conducted by the use of IoT devices botnets. Specifically, agents exchange outbound traffic information in order to identify possible victims of DDoS attacks. This information exchange is governed by a blockchain smart contract, that ensures the integrity of both the procedure and the information. A simulation of the operation of the proposed methodology has been conducted in order to evaluate both its detection efficiency and its resilience against malicious agents that aim to falsify results.
Nikhil Ravi, Shammya Shananda Saha, Anna Scaglione, Nathan G. Johnson
In recent years, many Blockchain based frameworks for transacting commodities on a congestible network have been proposed. In particular, as the number of controllable grid connected assets increases, there is a need for a decentralized, coupled economic and control mechanism to dynamically balance the entire electric grid. Blockchain based Transactive Energy (TE) systems have gained significant momentum as an approach to sustain the reliability and security of the power grid in order to support the flexibility of electricity demand. What is lacking in these designs, however, is a mechanism that physically verifies all the energy transactions, to keep the various inherently selfish players honest. In this paper, we introduce a secure peer-to-peer network mechanism for the physical validation of economic transactions cleared over a distributed ledger. The framework is $\textit{secure}$ in the sense that selfish and malicious agents that are trying to inject false data into the network are prevented from adversely affecting the optimal functionality of the verification process by detecting and isolating them from the communication network. Preliminary simulations focusing on TE show the workings of this framework.
The out-of-gas error occurs when smart contract programs are provided with inputs that cause excessive gas consumption, and would be easily exploited to make the DoS attack. Multiple approaches have been proposed to estimate the gas limit of a function in smart contracts to avoid such error. However, under estimation often happens when the contract is complicated. In this work, we propose V-Gas, which could automatically generate inputs that maximizes the gas cost and reduce the under estimation cases. V-Gas is designed based on feedback-directed mutational fuzz testing. First, V-Gas builds the gas weighted control flow graph (CFG) of functions in smart contracts. Then, V-Gas develops gas consumption guided selection and mutation strategies to generate the input that maximize the gas consumption. For evaluation, we implement V-Gas based on js-evm, a widely used ethereum virtual machine written in javascript, and conduct experiments on 736 real-world transactions recorded on Ethereum. 44.02\% of the transactions would have out-of-gas errors under the estimation results given by solc, means that the recorded real gas consumption for those recorded transactions is larger than the gas limit value estimated by solc. While V-Gas could reduce the under estimation ratio to 13.86\%. Furthermore, V-Gas has exposed 25 previously unknown out-of-gas vulnerabilities in those widely-used smart contracts, 5 of which have been assigned unique CVE identifiers in the US National Vulnerability Database.
Out-of-gas errors occur when smart contract programs are provided with inputs that cause excessive gas consumption and which will be easily exploited to perform Denial-of-Service attacks. Various approaches have been proposed to estimate the gas limit of a function in smart contracts to avoid such error. However, underestimation often occurs when the contract is complex In this work, we propose V-Gas, which automatically generates inputs that maximize the gas cost and reduce underestimation. V-Gas is designed based on static analysis and feedback-directed mutational fuzz testing. First, V-Gas builds the gas weighted control flow graph of functions in smart contracts. Then, V-Gas develops gas consumption guided selection and mutation strategies to generate the input that maximize the gas consumption. For evaluation, we implement V-Gas based on js-evm, a widely used Ethereum virtual machine written in Javascript, and conduct experiments on 736 real-world transactions recorded on Ethereum. A total of 44.02% of the transactions would have out-of-gas errors based on the estimation results given by solc, meaning that the recorded real gas consumption for those transactions is larger than the gas limit estimated by solc. In comparison, V-Gas could reduce the underestimation ratio to 13.86%. To evaluate the performance of feedback-directed engine in V-Gas, we implemented other directed fuzzing engines and compared their performance with that of V-Gas. The results showed that V-Gas generates the same or higher gas estimation value on 97.8% of the transactions with less time, usually within 5 minutes. Furthermore, V-Gas has exposed 25 previously unknown out-of-gas vulnerabilities in widely used smart contracts, 6 of which have been assigned unique CVE identifiers in the U.S. National Vulnerability Database.
Yeray Mezquita, Amin Shokri Gazafroudi, Juan M. Corchado, Miadreza Shafie‐khah · 6 authors
The security of smart grids is put at risk due to their automation and remote access features. Blockchain technology can be used as a distributed ledger where data is stored and all the data transactions between the different entities of a smart grid are signed to protect them from such attacks. This paper proposes a multi-agent system (MAS) that combines smart contracts and blockchain to enable Peer-to-Peer electricity trading in a MicroGrid (MG) scenario, without the need for human intervention. The use of blockchain technology helps reduce transaction costs and allows to make micro transactions in the proposed market. Blockchain also improves the security of the platform because all the involved actors can be certain about the authorship of the information produced in the system. Finally, the use of a MAS and the possibility of negotiating between the agents helps obtain an optimal state in the system in which the costs of energy are minimal and the local production of energy is profitable.
To overcome the high cost, high risk and poor efficiency of traditional centralized electric energy trading method, this paper proposes an efficient trading mechanism for energy power supply and demand network (EPSDN) based on blockchain smart contract, considering the opening of the sales side market in China. Specifically, the encourage-real-quotation (ERQ) rule was adopted to determine the clearing queue and price, thus smoothing the supply and demand interaction between the EPSDN node. Meanwhile, the blockchain smart contract was introduced into the transaction to form a sealed quotation function, which eliminates the centralization and high cost and solves the poor transparency and trust in traditional transaction. In addition, the transaction efficiency was improved through the construction of an efficient power trading system and a secure trading environment. A case study is given in the end of the paper. Case study shows that the blockchain-based smart contract trading system for the EPSDN can achieve desirable security and effectiveness, and effectively solve the problems of the traditional centralized trading method. The research findings lay solid theoretical and decision-making bases for small-scale transactions in the electric energy market.
George Suciu, Mari-Anais Sachian, Marius Dobrea, Cristiana-Ioana Istrate · 7 authors
This paper presents how a Smart Grid system is secured and how blockchain implementation provides confidentiality and integrity for such a system. One main issue that has to be addressed in smart grid systems is databases security. Blockchain has been proven to be a safe alternative to be used in mining systems because it allows a secure applicability in databases. Another important feature is that each hash in a crypto mining system cannot be changed if it has such an algorithm behind its build, thus resulting in a secure and reliable system. This paper aims to show how blockchain can affect and be used in a smart power management system going forth from the SealedGRID platform. This system enables the user to monitor in real time the power usage in a smart grid system, therefore, this platform being built with security and resilience against attacks in mind.