Blockchain Papers

Ángel Arcos-Vargas, Daniel Lugo, Fernando Núñez

No abstract is available for this record.

Dragos Strugar, Rasheed Hussain, Manuel Mazzara, Víctor Rivera · 6 authors

The proliferation of electric vehicles has spurred the research interest in technologies associated with it, for instance, batteries, and charging mechanisms. Moreover, the recent advancements in autonomous cars also encourage the enabling technologies to integrate and provide holistic applications. To this end, one key requirement for electric vehicles is to have an efficient, secure, and scalable infrastructure and framework for charging, billing, and auditing. However, the current manual charging systems for EVs may not be applicable to the autonomous cars that demand new, automatic, secure, efficient, and scalable billing and auditing mechanism. Owing to the distributed systems such as blockchain technology, in this paper, we propose a new charging and billing mechanism for electric vehicles that charge their batteries in a charging-on-the-move fashion. To meet the requirements of billing in electric vehicles, we leverage distributed ledger technology (DLT), a distributed peer-to-peer technology for micro-transactions. Our proof-of-concept implementation of the billing framework demonstrates the feasibility of such system in electric vehicles. It is also worth noting that the solution can easily be extended to the electric autonomous cars (EACs).

Arnob Ghosh, Vaneet Aggarwal, Hong Wan

We consider users which may have renewable energy harvesting devices, or distributed generators. Such users can behave as consumer or producer (hence, we denote them as prosumers) at different time instances. A prosumer may sell the energy to other prosumers in exchange of money. We consider a demand response model, where the price of conventional energy depends on the total demand of all the prosumers at a certain time. A prosumer depending on its own utility has to select the amount of energy it wants to buy either from the grid or from other prosumers, or the amount of excess energy it wants to sell to other prosumers. However, the strategy, and the payoff of a prosumer inherently depends on the strategy of other prosumers as a prosumer can only buy if the other prosumers are willing to sell. We formulate the problem as a coupled constrained game, and seek to obtain the generalized Nash equilibrium. We show that the game is a concave potential game and show that there exists a unique generalized Nash equilibrium. We consider that a platform will set the price for distributed interchange of energy among the prosumers in order to minimize the consumption of the conventional energy. We propose a distributed algorithm where the platform sets a price to each prosumer, and then each prosumer at a certain time only optimizes its own payoff. The prosumer then updates the price depending on the supply and demand for each prosumer. We show that the algorithm converges to an optimal generalized Nash equilibrium. The distributed algorithm also provides an optimal price for the exchange market.

Feng Gao, Liehuang Zhu, Meng Shen, Kashif Sharif · 6 authors

As an integral part of V2G networks, EVs receive electricity from not only the grid but also other EVs and may frequently feed the power back to the grid. Payment records in V2G networks are useful for extracting user behaviors and facilitating decision-making for optimized power supply, scheduling, pricing, and consumption. Sharing payment and user information, however, raises serious privacy concerns in addition to the existing challenge of secure and reliable transaction processing. In this article, we propose a blockchain-based privacy preserving payment mechanism for V2G networks, which enables data sharing while securing sensitive user information. The mechanism introduces a registration and data maintenance process that is based on a blockchain technique, which ensures the anonymity of user payment data while enabling payment auditing by privileged users. Our design is implemented based on Hyperledger to carefully evaluate its feasibility and effectiveness.

George Kyriakarakos, G. Papadakis

Currently, 1.06 billion people still do not have access to electricity, with the majority living in rural areas around the world[...]

Fanny Vanrykel, Damien Ernst, Marc Bourgeois

This article studies the emergence of Share&Charge, a German platform that organizes the sharing of charging stations for electric vehicles (EVs) and the billing for the energy transactions. Share&Charge follows a peer-to-peer fashion, enabling direct transactions between charging station owners and EV drivers. On the demand side, the platform, with its interactive map, makes it possible for EV owners to find a charging station in the most suitable location, for instance, at their place of work or where they live. On the offer side, Share&Charge enables station operators (private individuals or companies) to rent their charging stations and eventually to sell the electricity they produce. Charging tariffs within the charging station network are determined by the charging station operators themselves, but the platform provides indicative tariffs. Launched in September 2017, Share&Charge follows other initiatives, such as the French platforms Wattpop and ChargeMap, and the Swedish Elbnb. Share&Charge’s network is already proven to be successful with German citizens. Share&Charge adds certain elements of value at different stages of EV utilization. First, this model allows for a co-financing of charging infrastructures by individuals and businesses in the private sector by sharing the infrastructure costs among EV drivers. Besides the purchase price of EVs, the implementation of charging infrastructures and their financing represent a significant barrier to the rise of e-mobility. Share&Charge helps remove this obstacle without adding a further burden on the governmental budget. In addition, this approach follows the “user pays principle,” which engages in fair and effective financing. Second, the platform increases decentralized production value and facilitates its expansion. It also helps in avoiding grid congestion and energy loss, as well as increasing flexibility within the electricity market. Third, data use enables the optimization of energy demand and supply, and the optimal determination of tariffs, although these remain facultative. Models like Share&Charge could thus positively impact energy policy by tackling several upcoming obstacles associated with the development of EVs and decentralized energy production capacities. However, new forms of network structures (decentralized networks, sharing economy) and new actors (prosumers, platforms, etc.) also raise regulatory challenges. This article presents some of the legal issues associated with the development of models like Share&Charge. In particular, we study the tax framework applicable to this model, assuming that as such, it would be introduced into the Belgian market.

Jianchao Hou, Haicheng Wang, Pingkuo Liu

Access to energy has increasingly been provided by the Chinese Government via new alternative energy sources known as renewables in recent years. Meanwhile, the development and use of environmentally friendly renewables gradually become the basic requirements for the sustainable development in the future society. The integration of blockchain technology with distributed photovoltaic (PV) energy may break the existing pattern where the production, transportation, distribution, and sales of energy are centralized. This paper first reviews the current overall situation of China's distributed PV and further analyzes the policy environment with respect to the development of distributed PV. On the basis of the analysis of the status quo, the paper then discusses the internalities (strengths and weaknesses) and the externalities (opportunities and threats) that have driven the development of China's distributed PV by illustrating the SWOT analysis. The data structure and characteristics of blockchain are analyzed to identify the application mode of blockchain technology in the distributed PV industry for the first time. Through our research, some conclusions and policy proposals are finally put forward to provide support to the formulation of related policy in the Chinese Government and industry association.

Subhasis Thakur, John G. Breslin

No abstract is available for this record.

Olga Jensen

Den europeiska energisektorn genomgår numera en viktig övergång från en centraliserad elkraftförsörjning till distribuerad elproduktion från förnybara källor. Dessutom leder utfasningen av fossila bränslen till en ökning av antalet elfordon (här EV). Höga penetrationsnivåer för både EV och förnybara energin på distributionsnivån kan orsaka ytterligare belastning på elnätet, vilket kan leda till avbrott i strömförsörjningen och försämring av strömkvaliteten. I detta examensarbete undersöktes möjligheterna att lösa detta problem i Tyskland. Den föreslagna lösningen är ett förvaltningssystem för EV-laddning och lokal förnybar elproduktion/-koppling i realtid. Tre användningsfall utvecklades för att analysera denna lösning. Det första användningsfallet ”hyresgästernas el” är baserat på den nya tyska förordningen som infördes 2017 och främjar att använda solenergi ”bakom” elmätaren i flerbostadshyrehus. I detta fall, genom att erbjuda en EV-laddningstjänst, kan hyresvärden uppnå en högre konsumtionsnivå under solskenstimmarna när hyresgästerna är på jobbet, och därmed få en bättre ersättning. Betalningsperioden för en 11 kW laddsstation, som skulle användas tillsammans med en PV av 26 kWp, beräknades vara cirka 5 år om laddstationen är upptagen 30-40 % av den möjliga dagsljustiden. Om laddstationenen har installerats på grund av andra ändamål kan ”hyresgästernas el”-modellen bli en extra inkomstkälla. De andra två användningsfallen beror på möiligheten att införa en ”minskad elnätavgift”. Här måste man nämna att insatser att föra EV-laddningen på tid och plats för förnybar elproduktion måste motiveras. Numera är elpriset fast i Tyskland för småförbrukare som betyder att det inte finns någon orsak för en beteendeförändring av EV-förare. En minskad elnätsavgift kunde bli en åtgärd för att främja ”EV-laddning + lokal förnybar elproduktion”-kopplingen; den kan beviljas av en distributionssystemoperatör (DSO) ifall denna EV-laddning skulle hjälpa att undvika stockningar och avkortning i elnätet. Det andra användningsfallet innebär att införa en sådan minskad elnätavgift för EV-laddning med lokal sol- (PV) eller vindel, som inför dynamisk prissättning. I det här fallet ska lokala elproducenter behöva säjla el till lokala laddstationer på ett peer-to-peer (P2P) sätt. Enligt gällande regelverk är ren P2P-handel inte möjlig; den skulle behöva inrättning av lokala energimarknader och ytterligare balansering. Vad man kan göra kallas direktmarknadsföring, vilket är en elmarknadsmodell som utförs av en aggregator. Användningen av blockchain som ett verktyg skulle bli välgörande för båda fallen eftersom det skulle tilllåta realtids - främja ”EV-laddning + lokal förnybar elproduktion”-kopplingen med dynamisk prissättning. Ifall man gör P2P-handel möjligt, skulle blockchain också bli användbar för betalningar, medan införandet av blockchainbaserade betalningar konstaterades att inte vara genomförbart under den direktmarknadsföringsmodell som existerar idag. Det tredje användningsfallet innebär “självkonsumption”/”framme”-elmätaren, när PV / (vindkraftverk)-ägaren och EV-ägeren är samma person; så när hen laddar sin bil samtidigt med elploduktionen, skulle hen inte behöva betala för kilowattimmar och, beroende på distansen mellan de två elanslutningspunkterna, skulle hen därmed kunna få rabatt på elnätavgiften. För det här fallet konstaterades det att enligt den nuvarande direktmarknadsföringsmodellen, där aggregatorn och laddstationsleverantören tillhör samma företag, skulle ett sådant användningsfall tveklöst kunna genomföras på grund av gemensam bokföring. Ett sådant fall kan bli ett attraktivt erbjudande, särskilt för PV-ägare som inte får inmatningsavgiften. P2P-handelns slutsatser liknar det tidigare användningsfallet. För det andra och tredje användningsfället upptäcktes det att i den situationen då P2P-handel är möjlig, skulle EV-laddningen inte uppfylla "försäljningsbehovet" för producenter eftersom den inte är fullt förutsägbar. Därför måste urvalet av P2P-köpare utvidgas till stationära konsumenter; d.v.s. att bredda det föreslagna systemets funktionaliteter från bara EV-laddning till fullständig P2P-handel. Eftersom EV-laddningen skulle behöva göras i realtid, vara flexibel för laddningsförhållanden, uppfylls behov av flera andelsägare och att vara manipulationssäkert, föreslås distribuerad ledgerteknik (DLT) som implementeringsverktyg. Av två olika DLT, Ethereum och IOTA, drogs slutsatsen att teknikurvalet för att implementera det föreslagna systemet beror på implementeringstiden. Från och med idag ligger Ethereum i ett högre stadium i utvecklingen , vilket prioriterar Ethereum för omedelbar implementering. Samtidigt är IOTA en mycket lovande teknik i ett lägre löptidstillstånd. När de löser ett antal kontroversiella problem blir IOTA ett värdefullt verktyg.

Chao Liu, Kok Keong Chai, Eng Tseng Lau, Yue Chen

No abstract is available for this record.

Ying Zhong, Bin Duan, Yinxin Yan, Xiangshuai Qu · 5 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Hua Song, Ence Zhou, Bingfeng Pi, Jun Sun · 6 authors

Battery swapping is a solution of electric vehicle (EV) battery refueling. For EV owners, the battery information and transaction’s correctness, openness, traceability and immutability is difficult to get guarantee in traditional centralized system. The trust lacking between EV owners and swapping station is caused, and becomes a big challenge to EV’s rapid development. An objective mechanism based on decentralized blockchain system is proposed to manage battery swapping and solve the trust lacking issue. With this solution, both battery’s life-cycle information and all operations histories are permanently saved in blockchain network. All key logics are driven by smart contracts, the battery price calculation and the digital currency exchange between EV owners and station are realized by smart contracts automatically and accurately. A primary prototype based on Ethereum is analyzed and implemented to illustrate the feasibility of managing battery swapping and refueling based on blockchain system to solve the trust lacking issue.

Valentina Nakić

Global energy consumption is expected to increase over the course of this century. Continued generation with the current energy mix is expected to further threaten climate tipping points. In order to meet emissions reduction targets, there has been a global push by governments to increase their share of renewable energy sources (RESs). Adoption has grown across scales, in addition to demand for new market models which allow for more flexible energy distribution. Liberalization of energy markets has expanded the number of actors involved, further contributing to the complexity of the issue. Adapting management systems and market models to better incorporate distributed energy sources poses a unique challenge to current energy system actors. \nInformation and communication technologies (ICT) are increasingly explored as a means of increasing efficiency and enabling more dynamic markets. Among these is distributed ledger technology (DLT), a decentralised, immutable, and cryptographically secured record of transactions which proponents claim can enable peer-to-peer energy trading. As of November 2018, DLT-enabled energy trading remains in an experimental phase. The question of governance has repeatedly been raised without clear strategic visions set for integration into future energy systems. \nThis research is a single case study which employed participatory foresight methods to understand how governance arrangements, actor networks, and innovation policies can be shaped over the first half of the 21st century in order to facilitate a sustainable energy system transformation enhanced by distributed ledger technology. The foresight methods used are visioning, driver mapping, scenario design, and policy-stress testing. Participants came from various levels, roles, and competencies within the energy sector. Several DLT application areas were identified, along with drivers of change, which were used to frame scenario narratives applied later in policy stress-testing. \nResults show that while DLT is not deemed a necessary part of a sustainable energy system transformation, an interactive mode of governance would be most conducive to a future in which it would have a role. Further, results suggest that there are ample opportunities for DLT and/or innovation policies to be co-opted by vested interests and locked into a non-transformative pathway. The importance of data-sharing in enabling sociotechnical change and, moreover, the legitimacy debate surrounding data collection methods is another key insight. This research enriches the robustness of contemporary knowledge on the arrangement and planning for transformative governance structures which can promote opportunities for sustainable development provided by novel technologies such as DLT, in addition to the role of foresight exercises in anticipatory governance.

Chao Liu, Kok Keong Chai, Xiaoshuai Zhang, Eng Tseng Lau · 5 authors

The electric vehicle (EV) charging scheme can reduce the power generation costs and improve the smart grid resilience. However, the huge penetrations of EVs can impact the voltage stability and operating costs. In this paper, a novel EV participation charging scheme is proposed for a decentralized blockchain-enabled smart grid system. Our objectives are to minimize the power fluctuation level in the grid network and the overall charging cost for EV users. We first formulate the power fluctuation level problem of the smart grid system that take into accounts of EV battery capacities, charging rates, and EV users charging behavior. And then, we propose a novel adaptive blockchain-based electric vehicle participation (AdBEV) scheme that uses the Iceberg order execution algorithm to obtain an improved EV charging and discharging schedule. The simulation results show the proposed scheme outperforms the scheme that applying genetic algorithm approach in term of lowering the power fluctuation level and overall charging costs.

Xiaohong Huang, Cheng Xu, Pengfei Wang, Hongzhe Liu

The Internet of Energy (IoE) provides an effective networking technology for distributed green energy, which allows the connection of energy anywhere at any time. As an important part of the IoE, electric vehicles (EVs), and charging pile management are of great significance to the development of the IoE industry. Previous work has mainly focused on network performance optimization for its management, and few studies have considered the security of the management between EVs and charging piles. Therefore, this paper proposes a decentralized security model based on the lightning network and smart contract in the blockchain ecosystem; this proposed model is called the lightning network and smart contract (LNSC). The overall model involves registration, scheduling, authentication, and charging phases. The new proposed security model can be easily integrated with current scheduling mechanisms to enhance the security of trading between EVs and charging piles. Experimental results according to a realistic infrastructure are presented in this paper. These experimental results demonstrate that our scheme can effectively enhance vehicle security. Different performances of LNSC-based scheduling strategies are also presented.

Junyeon Hwang, Myeong-in Choi, Tacklim Lee, Seonki Jeon · 7 authors

Recently, various business models collect and store data generated from events using the Internet and various sensors and use them effectively. It is changing smartly into a convenient and safe new business model. In this paper, we present directions through experiments to understand and develop evolving types of business models by collecting data using various sensors in a test bed environment. We implement and experiment with technologies using Bigdata in addition to IoT(Internet of Things) technology. Renewable energy projects are attracting attention due to environmental issues such as global warming. In this paper, we introduce energy prosumer service model applying blockchain technology. This allows various energy sources to be connected to various users and producers. Also, we try to improve energy efficiency by analyzing energy pattern of users. We propose a transaction model that can collect, utilize, and process data more efficiently by combining the above technologies.

Paulin Jacquot, Olivier Beaude, Stéphane Gaubert, Nadia Oudjane

We compare two Demand Side Management (DSM) mechanisms, introduced\nrespectively by Mohsenian-Rad et al (2010) and Baharlouei et al (2012), in\nterms of efficiency and fairness. Each mechanism defines a game where the\nconsumers optimize their flexible consumption to reduce their electricity\nbills. Mohsenian-Rad et al propose a daily mechanism for which they prove the\nsocial optimality. Baharlouei et al propose a hourly billing mechanism for\nwhich we give theoretical results: we prove the uniqueness of an equilibrium in\nthe associated game and give an upper bound on its price of anarchy. We\nevaluate numerically the two mechanisms, using real consumption data from Pecan\nStreet Inc. The simulations show that the equilibrium reached with the hourly\nmechanism is socially optimal up to 0.1%, and that it achieves an important\nfairness property according to a quantitative indicator we define. We observe\nthat the two DSM mechanisms avoid the synchronization effect induced by non-\ngame theoretic mechanisms, e.g. Peak/OffPeak hours contracts.\n

Fabian Knirsch, Andreas Unterweger, Dominik Engel

Electric vehicles are gaining widespread adoption and are a key component in the establishment of the smart grid. Beside the increasing number of electric vehicles, a dense and widespread charging infrastructure will be required. This offers the opportunity for a broad range of different energy providers and charging station operators, both of which can offer energy at different prices depending on demand and supply. While customers benefit from a liberalized market and a wide selection of tariff options, such dynamic pricing use cases are subject to privacy issues and allow to detect the customer’s position and to track vehicles for, e.g., targeted advertisements. In this paper we present a reliable, automated and privacy-preserving selection of charging stations based on pricing and the distance to the electric vehicle. The protocol builds on a blockchain where electric vehicles signal their demand and charging stations send bids similar to an auction. The electric vehicle owner then decides on a particular charging station based on the supply-side offers it receives. This paper shows that the use of blockchains increases the reliability and the transparency of this approach while preserving the privacy of the electric vehicle owners.

Nam Ho Kim, Sun Moo Kang, Choong Seon Hong

Green transportation such as electric vehicles are emerging as an alternative to the traditional vehicles primarily due to the increasing cost and need of petroleum energy worldwide. These electric vehicle operate by using electric charging and the way to charge an electric car is to use a mobile charger or use a charging infrastructure. Therefore, when a mobile charger is used, a billing system is required through which a user is billed who has charged the electric vehicle. In this paper, we propose a mobile charger billing system that utilizes Blockchain technology. This technology has been applied to achieve more secure online transactions in a peer-to-peer manner. Moreover, we analyze the requirements of mobile charger for billing and propose a lightweight scheme that can overcome the challenge of data size in existing Blockchain.

Yunfei Hou, Yan Chen, Yi Jiao, Jiakui Zhao · 8 authors

With the popularity of electric vehicles, more and more charging piles were built. All of the private piles only serve for their owners, and are left unused for a longer time comparing to public piles. In order to keep private piles busier, meanwhile providing alternatives to electric vehicle users when charging, this paper designs a resolution for sharing private piles using blockchain and smart contract. Without the third party, we can do untrusted payment between strangers after charging; the access control strategy in this resolution protect the data privacy of transactions.

Kenji Tanaka, Kosuke Nagakubo, Rikiya Abe

As decentralized renewable energy has been installed into the present grid, millions of consumers and prosumers interacting each other over power grid. The variety of needs for exchanging energy would arise based on each customers' situation. The future electricity grid should be a bi-directional system with interconnected using distributed energy management software. Being able to provide a secure and decentralized control to these autonomous, peer-to-peer exchanges is one of the biggest challenges. We propose to use Blockchain-based electricity trading system with Digitalgrid router as an underlying platform because it could fit these requirements. Digitalgrid router, which consists back-to-back bi-directional digital inverters with software-based control, enables us to realize power exchange.

Jiawen Kang, Rong Yu, Xumin Huang, Sabita Maharjan · 6 authors

We propose a localized peer-to-peer (P2P) electricity trading model for locally buying and selling electricity among plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) in smart grids. Unlike traditional schemes, which transport electricity over long distances and through complex electricity transportation meshes, our proposed model achieves demand response by providing incentives to discharging PHEVs to balance local electricity demand out of their own self-interests. However, since transaction security and privacy protection issues present serious challenges, we explore a promising consortium blockchain technology to improve transaction security without reliance on a trusted third party. A localized P2P Electricity Trading system with COnsortium blockchaiN (PETCON) method is proposed to illustrate detailed operations of localized P2P electricity trading. Moreover, the electricity pricing and the amount of traded electricity among PHEVs are solved by an iterative double auction mechanism to maximize social welfare in this electricity trading. Security analysis shows that our proposed PETCON improves transaction security and privacy protection. Numerical results based on a real map of Texas indicate that the double auction mechanism can achieve social welfare maximization while protecting privacy of the PHEVs.

Sayyad Nojavan, Kazem Zare, Behnam Mohammadi‐Ivatloo

No abstract is available for this record.

Sayyad Nojavan, Kazem Zare, Behnam Mohammadi‐Ivatloo

No abstract is available for this record.