Blockchain Papers

Maria Luisa Di Silvestre, Pierluigi Gallo, Josep M. Guerrero, Rossano Musca · 8 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Olivier Van Cutsem, David Ho Dac, Pol Boudou, Maher Kayal

No abstract is available for this record.

Xiaolin Fu, Hong Wang, Zhi-Jie Wang, Zhong Shi · 6 authors

This paper aims to study the problems of surplus interaction, poor real-time performance, and excessive processing of information in the micro-grid scheduling and decision-making process. Firstly, the micro-grid dual-loop mobile topology structure is designed by using the method of block-chain and multi-agent fusion, realizing the real-time update of the decision-making body. Secondly, on the basis of optimizing the decision-making body, a two-layer model of intelligent decision-making under the decentralized mechanism is established. Aiming at the upper model, based on the theory of block-chain consensus mechanism, this paper proposes an improved evolutionary game algorithm. The maximum risk-benefit in the decision-making process is the objective function, which realizes the evaluation and optimization of decision tasks. For the lower layer model, based on the block-chain distributed ledger theory, this paper proposes an improved hybrid game reinforcement learning algorithm, with the maximum controllable load participation as the objective function, and realizes the optimal configuration of distributed energy in the micro-grid. This paper reveals the rules of group intelligent decision making in micro-grid under multi-task. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is verified by using Beijing Jin-feng Energy Internet Park data.

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.

Wenting Zhao, Jun Lv, Xilong Yao, Juanjuan Zhao · 8 authors

The microgrid trading market can effectively solve the problem of in-situ consumption of distributed energy and reduce the impact of distributed generation (DG) on the grid. However, the traditional microgrid trading model has some shortcomings, such as high operation cost and poor security. Therefore, in this paper, a microgrid market trading model was developed using consortium blockchain technology and Nash game equilibrium theory. Firstly, blockchain container is used to authenticate the users who want to participate in the transaction. Then, the pricing system collects and integrates transaction requests submitted by users, then formulates transaction pricing strategy of microgrid using Nash equilibrium theory. Finally, the price, trading volume, and user information are submitted to the blockchain container for transaction matching to achieve the transaction. After the transaction is completed, its related information is recorded in the hyperledger and the dispatch system is called. The scene simulation was implemented on Fabric 1.1 platform and the results analyzed. Results show that the trading model proposed in this paper greatly reduces the cost of electricity purchase and improves the benefits of electricity sales. Besides, the model is far more capable of handling transactions than the models based on Bitcoin and Ethereum.

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.

Wei Hu, Yawei Hu, Weizhi Yao, Wenqi Lu · 6 authors

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.

Michael J. Fell, Alexandra Schneiders, David Shipworth

Peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading could help address grid management challenges in a decentralizing electricity system, as well as providing other social and environmental benefits. Many existing and proposed trading schemes are enabled by blockchain, a distributed ledger technology (DLT) relying on cryptographic proof of ownership rather than human intermediaries to establish energy transactions. This study used an online survey experiment (n=2064) to investigate how consumer demand for blockchain-enabled peer-to-peer energy trading schemes in the United Kingdom varies depending on how the consumer proposition is designed and communicated. The analysis provides some evidence of a preference for schemes offering to meet a higher proportion of participants’ energy needs, and for those operating at the city/region (as compared to national or neighbourhood) level. People were more likely to say they would participate when the scheme was framed as being run by their local council, followed by an energy supplier, community energy organization, and social media company. Anonymity was the most valued DLT characteristic and mentioning blockchain’s association with Bitcoin led to a substantial decrease in intended uptake. We highlight a range of important questions and implications suggested by these findings for the introduction and operation of P2P trading schemes.

Anselma Wörner, Arne Meeuw, Liliane Ableitner, Felix Wortmann · 6 authors

Abstract Due to environmental and resiliency benefits, distributed energy resources (DER) are a potential solution for meeting future electricity demand, but their integration into centralized power markets on the large scale is challenging. Many practitioners argue that blockchain technology can create new market structures for DER like local peer-to-peer energy markets which foster renewable generation. To get an understanding of the status quo of the research on blockchain-based energy exchange, we conducted a systematic literature review on the existing academic articles and industry projects. This article describes the design and technical specifications of the first real blockchain-based electricity market in Switzerland derived from this literature review and outlines the implementation of this market in the real world. The findings provide valuable guidelines for the integration of DER into future sustainable energy markets.

Tarek AlSkaif, Gijs van Leeuwen

The rapid development of distributed energy resources (DER) in the distribution grid calls for novel control and coordination solutions. Optimal management of DER will enable end-users to decrease their electricity costs and provide crucial services to grid operators. In this paper, a decentralized Optimal Power Flow (OPF) model is used to locally coordinate DER in distribution networks, while considering the network constraints, in a distributed, transparent and secure fashion. To achieve that, a consensus-based distributed optimization algorithm is developed using the general form Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM). To enable transparent and verifiable management of the network, the paper provides a comprehensive procedure for the implementation of the decentralized OPF on a private blockchain-smart contracts platform. The performance of the proposed framework is tested using real data from a case study in a residential neighborhood in Amsterdam with different varieties of DER. The implementation procedure on a blockchain-smart contracts platform may be adopted in other problems that require a smart contract to act as a virtual aggregator.

Weiqi Hua, Hongjian Sun

Climate change enforces the integration of distributed renewable energy sources and development of carbon price scheme. Whilst the energy is traded among distributed prosumers, the carbon responsibilities and corresponding allowances trading need to be transferred from large-scale energy suppliers to prosumers. During this transformation, the issues of energy imbalance, carbon reduction imbalance, and residential privacy leakage in centralised trading market present serious challenges. In this paper, we propose a fully decentralised blockchain-based peer-to-peer trading scheme coupling energy and carbon markets. We implement pay-to-public-key-hash with multiple signatures as a transaction standard to realise a more secure transaction and reduced storage burden of senders. A script is hashed during the wallet address generation for each new transaction to protect residential privacy. A novel carbon accounting method and corresponding incentive mechanism for carbon reduction are designed to evaluate emission behaviours of distributed prosumers. Case studies demonstrate that the proposed scheme leads a reduced costs and carbon emissions compared to centralised trading systems and existing blockchain-based trading schemes.

Komal Khan

Increased penetration of Renewable Energy Sources(RES) and ever expanding global energy demands push forward the need of efficient utilization of RES by incorporating the prosumers (who are able to inject produced renewable energy) into the energy infrastructure.Moreover, there is emerging demand of the prosumers to participate in the electricity market and monetise their contributions.In order to facilitate these demands, the traditional centralised architectures are no longer viable therefore a decentralised transactive energy system enabling peer to peer energy trading, should be adopted.In this context, Blockchain based decentralised ledger technology emerges as the most viable solution which offers peer to peer energy trading platform providing a unique distributed local energy market model(LEM) for beneficial energy exchanges among participants which represents evolution for future smart grids.This thesis provides comprehensive review of the fundamental characteristics of the blockchain technology and its promising solutions for the energy industry.P2P energy trading, one of the use case of blockchain in energy sector has been focused and explored by thoroughly reviewing various initiatives, research and pilot projects that are currently working in that area.Moreover potential challenges pertaining to this blockchain based application are also evaluated.Based on the extensive research and literature review, a simple model of blockchain based peer to peer energy trade using IoT devices has been developed.Hence, this thesis provides all the necessary technical details and steps required to build the simple model of blockchain application for energy transactions.

Asma Khatoon, Piyush Verma, Jo Southernwood, Beth Massey · 5 authors

Blockchain technology is ready to disrupt nearly every industry and business model, and the energy sector is no exception. Energy businesses across the world have already started exploring the use of blockchain technology in large-scale energy trading systems, peer-to-peer energy trading, project financing, supply chain tracking, and asset management among other applications. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) recently started revolutionizing the energy landscape, and now blockchain technology is providing an additional opportunity to make the energy system more intelligent, efficient, transparent, and secure in the longer term. The idea of this paper is to examine more closely the use of blockchain technology for its possible application in the energy efficiency industry and to determine how it could make energy efficiency markets more secure and transparent in the longer term. This paper examines in detail the key benefits and implications of using blockchain in the energy efficiency sector through the presentation and discussion of two case studies as possible blockchain applications—(i) the UK Energy Company Obligation scheme and (ii) the Italian White Certificate Scheme. We have presented how the key issues around trading energy efficiency savings—correctly estimating the savings, data transparency among stakeholders, and inefficient administrative processes—can be solved through the application of a blockchain-based smart contract system. Finally, this paper presents an implementation of a smart contract for trading of energy-saving certificates achieved via execution of smart contract transactions on the Ethereum blockchain.

Matteo Troncia, Marco Galici, Mario Mureddu, Emilio Ghiani · 5 authors

The newest Distributed Ledger Technology platforms, which delegate the execution of complex tasks in the form of Smart Contracts, make it possible to devise novel local electricity market frameworks, which are performed in a fully automated fashion. This paper proposes a novel fully automated platform for energy and ancillary service markets in distribution networks, able to run in a decentralized fashion, bypassing the need for a physical central authority. The proposed platform, able to perform the role of Virtual Decentralized Market Authority, shows excellent potential applications in the management of local ancillary service markets in local energy communities of various sizes. The proposed Virtual Decentralized Market Authority showed reasonable running costs and comparable technical management capabilities with respect to a physical, centralized managing authority.

Peter O’Donovan, Dominic O’Sullivan

The application of blockchain technology to the energy sector promises to derive new operating models focused on local generation and sustainable practices, which are driven by peer-to-peer collaboration and community engagement. However, real-world energy blockchains differ from typical blockchain networks insofar as they must interoperate with grid infrastructure, adhere to energy regulations, and embody engineering principles. Naturally, these additional dimensions make real-world energy blockchains highly dependent on the participation of grid operators, engineers, and energy providers. Although much theoretical and proof-of-concept research has been published on energy blockchains, this research aims to establish a lens on real-world projects and implementations that may inform the alignment of academic and industry research agendas. This research classifies 131 real-world energy blockchain initiatives to develop an understanding of how blockchains are being applied to the energy domain, what type of failure rates can be observed from recently reported initiatives, and what level of technical and theoretical details are reported for real-world deployments. The results presented from the systematic analysis highlight that real-world energy blockchains are (a) growing exponentially year-on-year, (b) producing relatively low failure/drop-off rates (~7% since 2015), and (c) demonstrating information sharing protocols that produce content with insufficient technical and theoretical depth.

Xingxiong Zhu

Abstract Based on the blockchain technology, important datas such as transactions, scheduling, finance, and energy contracts are distributedly recorded, various resources such as distributed energy generation, energy transmission, energy consumption, and energy storage are aggregated for collaborative optimization control and market trading. In this paper, we build blockchain-based new generation energy Internet with extensive interconnection, intelligent decision making, real-time interaction, and open sharing. The application of blockchain technology in energy Internet includes photovoltaic energy microgrid, blockchain-based energy Internet entities, blockchain-based power trading, and energy asset securitization. Technical frameworks for energy Internet market trading system based on blockchain technology are proposed. Distributed energy ledger and energy trading smart contract are utilized. Distributed trading rules, algorithms and processes of energy system and microgrid are established. Energy Internet transactions and payment settlement system are constructed. Energy producers and consumers trade peer-to-peer on the platform to improve system efficiency and security.

Zheng Che, Yu Wang, Juanjuan Zhao, Yan Qiang · 6 authors

With the rapid development of the energy internet, the transaction of distributed renewable energy (DRE) is playing an increasingly important role in the energy market. However, in the transaction model of distributed renewable energy combined with public blockchain technology, nodes in the trading network can join or leave the network at any time without any permission, which hinders the regulation of electricity institutions. Corresponding to the transaction principle, a distributed renewable energy transaction authentication mechanism based on consortium blockchain is proposed in this paper. First, certificate authority nodes were set in the transaction network to provide nodes with access authority by controlling the public keys and private keys of trading participants so that they can complete their identity authentication. Next, essential chaincodes in the transaction authentication were designed and deployed on a Hyperledger Fabric blockchain site, and a simulation experiment of a simple DRE transaction was used to elaborate the details on the transaction process. Finally, the proposed model was evaluated according to its performance and proved to be practical and effective.

Barry Hayes, Subhasis Thakur, John G. Breslin

No abstract is available for this record.

Shivam Saxena, Hany E. Z. Farag, Aidan Brookson, Hjalmar Turesson · 5 authors

This paper proposes a peer to peer (P2P), blockchain based energy trading market platform for residential communities with the objective of reducing overall community peak demand and household electricity bills. Smart homes within the community place energy bids for its available distributed energy resources (DERs) for each discrete trading period during a day, and a double auction mechanism is used to clear the market and compute the market clearing price (MCP). The marketplace is implemented on a permissioned blockchain infrastructure, where bids are stored to the immutable ledger and smart contracts are used to implement the MCP calculation and award service contracts to all winning bids. Utilizing the blockchain obviates the need for a trusted, centralized auctioneer, and eliminates vulnerability to a single point of failure. Simulation results show that the platform enables a community peak demand reduction of 46%, as well as a weekly savings of 6%. The platform is also tested at a real-world Canadian microgrid using the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain framework, to show the end to end connectivity of smart home DERs to the platform.

Claudia Pop, Claudia Antal, Tudor Cioara, Ionuț Anghel · 10 authors

Nowadays, it has been recognized that blockchain can provide the technological infrastructure for developing decentralized, secure, and reliable smart energy grid management systems. However, an open issue that slows the adoption of blockchain technology in the energy sector is the low scalability and high processing overhead when dealing with the real-time energy data collected by smart energy meters. Thus, in this paper, we propose a scalable second tier solution which combines the blockchain ledger with distributed queuing systems and NoSQL (Not Only SQL database) databases to allow the registration of energy transactions less frequently on the chain without losing the tamper-evident benefits brought by the blockchain technology. At the same time, we propose a technique for tamper-evident registration of smart meters' energy data and associated energy transactions using digital fingerprinting which allows the energy transaction to be linked hashed-back on-chain, while the sensors data is stored off-chain. A prototype was implemented using Ethereum and smart contracts for the on-chain components while for the off-chain components we used Cassandra database and RabbitMQ messaging broker. The prototype proved to be effective in managing a settlement of energy imbalances use-case and during the evaluation conducted in simulated environment shows promising results in terms of scalability, throughput, and tampering of energy data sampled by smart energy meters.

D. Coll-Mayor, A. Notholt

This paper presents the preliminary results of a set of research projects being developed at the distributed resources laboratory at the University of Reutlingen. The main aim of these projects is to couple distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) with distributed control of microgrids. Firstly, a DLT based solution for a local market platform has been developed. This enables end customers to participate in new local micro-energy-markets by providing them with a distributed, decentralized, transparent and secure Peer to Peer (P2P) payment system. Secondly, this solution has been integrated with an autonomous (agent-based) grid management. The integrated solution of both marked platform as well as agent based control has been implemented and tested in a real microgrid with different distributed components such as PV System, CHP and different kinds of controllable loads. This microgrid is located in the distributed energy resources laboratory at the University of Reutlingen. Thirdly, the resulting solution is being implemented as an easy to customize market solution by AC2SG Software Oy, a Finland based software company, developing solutions for the Indian market. In a next phase, the solution is going to be tested in real environment in off-grids systems in India.

Yueqiang Xu, Petri Ahokangas, Seppo Yrjölä, Timo Koivumäki

Abstract Enabling and empowering the diverse energy resources to have active yet efficient participation in the smart grid and energy market is an unrivaled challenge for the energy industry. This research expands the four dominant archetypes of business models in the energy and electricity market, creating a fifth archetype, the “blockchain marketplace”. The contributions of the study are to identify the extant electricity market designs and architectures as centralized and pseudo-decentralized while proposing a fully decentralized architecture enabled by the blockchain. The research contributes to the literature of smart grids and demand-side management and introduces the value configuration/architecture approach for the energy market and business model domains.

Boyu Wang, Morteza Dabbaghjamanesh, Abdollah Kavousi‐Fard, Shahab Mehraeen

Power grid resilience, reliability, and sustainability can be improved significantly by decomposing the large grids into networked microgrids (NMGs). However, the optimal energy management problem and preserving the security in NMGs are more complicated and challenging. This paper aims to propose a secured stochastic energy management framework for NMGs based on the modified blockchain approach, utilizing the directed acyclic graph (DAG). Using the decentralized and transparent blockchain technology will help to have higher security and lower risks within the network, thus eliminating the financial fraud and cutting down the total operational cost. In order to address the issues arising in the traditional blockchain models, mainly due to the storage and high complexities of hash address calculations, this paper proposes a new modified blockchain technology based on the DAG method. Also, a novel data restoration technique is developed to provide a way to restore the data with appropriate accuracy. The unscented transform (UT) approach is employed to model the uncertainties of forecast error in hourly load demand, solar power output, and wind turbines power output. Finally, the proposed model is tested on an NMG system with four MGs, including two residential MGs (as the noncrucial loads), a commercial MG (as the intermediate level loads), and a hospital MG (as the crucial loads).

Yunjun Yu, Yang‐Hui Guo, Weidong Min, Fanpeng Zeng

In order to build a local electricity market (LEM), community members can trade electricity peer-to-peer (P2P) with their neighbors. This paper proposes a Hierarchical Bidding and Transaction Structure based on blockchain (HBTS). First, combined with the multi-agents, each microgrid corrects the estimated cost probability distribution of other microgrids by Bayesian theorem, making its probability closer to the accurate probability. Second, for maximize the benefits of the microgrid, this paper uses the Nash equilibrium in the Cournot model to find the optimal quotation and output of different bidding strategies for the microgrid under different power demand conditions. Then the exchange of electricity translates into an exchange of digital proof of electricity purchases and sales of electricity on the Hyperledger Fabric, ensuring the security of the transaction process and the irreparable modification of ledgers. Finally, we verify the effectiveness of the bidding strategy through experiments, and analyze the transaction process.