Shekh S. Uddin, Rahul Joysoyal, Subrata K. Sarker, S. M. Muyeen · 14 authors
Technological advancements in smart grid energy systems (SGESs) are introducing sustainable frameworks to meet the demand for the fourth industrial energy revolution. These frameworks are planned to be used in the forthcoming future to maintain the energy network operation with optimization, energy trading, grid automation, and so on. Blockchain (BCn), developing after passing a diverse period of the research journey, comes to the mind of researchers and its integration in SGES paves the way to reach the goal of energy demand. However, still of interest is ongoing in the improvement of BCn features which can be regarded as the next-generation blockchain framework. This paper exhibits the technical framework of the next-generation BCn framework and explores its benefits and challenges in performing the emerging aspects of SGES. This framework enables some advanced features for the sustainable operation of SGES like smart metering, peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading, self-operation, and transparency. The technical explanation of this BCn technology established on essential features and requisites is also presented in this paper from various points of view which include smart mechanism, intelligent storage system, and interoperability. We also highlight the recent progress and limitations of the current BCn framework in SGES. Finally, some challenges towards integrating the next-generation BCn technology in SGES are reported. This work can provide extended support for the practitioner and researcher in the context of BCn technology and SGES.
Ali Menati, Xiangtian Zheng, Kiyeob Lee, Ranyu Shi · 7 authors
Blockchain technologies are considered one of the most disruptive innovations of the last decade, enabling secure decentralized trust-building. However, in recent years, with the rapid increase in the energy consumption of blockchain-based computations for cryptocurrency mining, there have been growing concerns about their sustainable operation in electric grids. This paper investigates the tri-factor impact of such large loads on carbon footprint, grid reliability, and electricity market price in the Texas grid. We release open-source high-resolution data to enable high-resolution modeling of influencing factors such as location and flexibility. We reveal that the per-megawatt-hour carbon footprint of cryptocurrency mining loads across locations can vary by as much as 50% of the crude system average estimate. We show that the flexibility of mining loads can significantly mitigate power shortages and market disruptions that can result from the deployment of mining loads. These findings suggest policymakers to facilitate the participation of large mining facilities in wholesale markets and require them to provide mandatory demand response.
Jingjing Wang, Fei Long, Bo Jin, Dangdang Dai · 5 authors
The smart grid has provided a fascinating opportunity to move the energy industry into a new era of reliability, availability and efficiency that contributes to both energy saving and environment protection. Besides, the smart grid has abandoned the single power supply paradigm in traditional power grid, and it can promote information and resource exchange through peer-to-peer transactions. For example, electricity can be traded effectively in real-time, so that all users can be benefited from cost saving. However, the energy trading data may contain sensitive information of the participating parties. If this information is leaked, user privacy might be violated. Moreover, the trading information should be enforced with fine-grained access control. To fulfil these security requirements, we propose a privacy preserving energy trading platform based on smart contract. First, ElGamal encryption is used to protect the privacy of exchanged messages. Second, proxy re-encryption is employed to achieve fine-grained access control, and it is more efficient than attribute based encryption that is widely used in existing solutions. Third, smart contract is used as the arbitrator, and thanks to its attractive characteristics, such as transparency and trustworthy execution, it can replace the trusted third parties in many existing schemes. Security analyses prove that our scheme satisfies all the desirable security requirements, such as correctness, privacy, fine-grained access control, robustness. And performance analyses demonstrate that it is practical for large-scale applications.
Abstract Blockchain is a powerful technology to facilitate decarbonization, decentralization, digitalization, and democratization (4D's) of the energy systems of the future. The 4D's are the driving forces of transition into new energy systems that are more sustainable, resilient, efficient, and equitable. Although this technology can be applied to a wide spectrum of applications in the power sector, a set of challenges and limitations still need to be addressed to facilitate a full‐scope implementation in energy systems. This paper presents an overview of blockchain technology from its inception through its most recent evolution and presents a thematic review of state of the art in the application of this technology in power systems. Further, it addresses the barriers preventing the power sector from large‐scale, full‐scope adoption of this technology. Finally, the emerging blockchain trends in the near future will be discussed and its potential to facilitate a secure, decentralized energy trading platform will be investigated.
Water resources are vital to the energy conversion process but few efforts have been devoted to the joint optimization problem which is fundamentally critical to the water-energy nexus for small-scale or remote energy systems (e.g., energy hubs). Traditional water and energy trading mechanisms depend on centralized authorities and cannot preserve security and privacy effectively. Also, their transaction process cannot be verified and is subject to easy tampering and frequent exposures to cyberattacks, forgery, and network failures. Toward that end, water-energy hubs (WEHs) offers a promising way to analyse water-energy nexus for greater resource utilization efficiency. We propose a two-stage blockchain-based transactive management method for multiple, interconnected WEHs. Our method considers peer-to-peer (P2P) trading and demand response, and leverages blockchain to create a secure trading environment. It features auditing and resource transaction record management via system aggregators enabled by a consortium blockchain, and entails spatial-temporal distributionally robust optimization (DRO) for renewable generation and load uncertainties. A spatial-temporal ambiguity set is incorporated in DRO to characterize the spatial-temporal dependencies of the uncertainties in distributed renewable generation and load demand. We conduct a simulation-based evaluation that includes robust optimization and the moment-based DRO as benchmarks. The results reveal that our method is consistently more effective than both benchmarks. Key findings include i) our method reduces conservativeness with lower WEH trading and operation costs, and achieves important performance improvements by up to 6.1%; and ii) our method is efficient and requires 18.7% less computational time than the moment-based DRO. Overall, this study contributes to the extant literature by proposing a novel two-stage blockchain-based WEH transaction method, developing a realistic spatial-temporal ambiguity set to effectively hedge against the uncertainties for distributed renewable generation and load demand, and producing empirical evidence suggesting its greater effectiveness and values than several prevalent methods.
The management of energy consumption and payment transactions using a secure, decentralized energy system framework is essential in the water distribution network (WDN). The water energy market, in which energy may be transformed into a digital asset that is potentially monitored, trackable and tradable, might greatly benefit from the deployment of blockchain technology. This is because the blockchain has transaction privacy, decentralization, security, and immutability features. Furthermore, using blockchain smart contracts enables energy market management operations such as consumers, prosumers, and enterprises to register and track their utilization as well as to be aware of the financial transactions. In this paper, we optimize a secure peer-to-peer (P2P) Ethereum blockchain platform for water energy consumption and payment transactions among WDN reservoirs and customer nodes. Additionally, we developed a WDN energy trading and payment Ethereum smart contract to monitor autonomous pay-per-use payment and energy distribution on the decentralized P2P trade network.
Nan Ma, Alex Waegel, Max Hakkarainen, William W. Braham · 6 authors
Electric demand flexibility in buildings is highly dependent on occupant behavior. Evaluating and incentivizing these behaviors can provide grid-responsive support and encourage demand response (DR) participation. To achieve these goals, we developed an infrastructure for connecting Internet of Things (IoT) sensors to a distributed ledger (blockchain network) for long-term monitoring of energy and environmental performance. This study presents a novel Blockchain + IoT paradigm for the building science research community, applied in a real-world application. This Blockchain + IoT Network (BIN) uses Raspberry Pi minicomputers as platforms for connecting sensors to a blockchain network, to provide and analyze real-time indoor environmental quality (IEQ), energy, and carbon intensity data. As part of the study, we propose various metrics to evaluate the environmental footprints of building users. Novel algorithms for normalizing energy usage and carbon intensity, with consideration of a variety of related environmental factors, are executed as smart contracts on the blockchain network. All measurements and the smart contract transactions are reported and visualized on live dashboards. The use of smart contract allocates tokens based on the reward algorithms to incentivize individuals’ energy conservation, and similarly to DR pricing, can help influence occupant consumption patterns towards carbon reduction goals. We further test the smart contract’s algorithm in relation to real sensor data we have collected in two case studies: single-unit households and carbon intensity in the energy market. The combination of proposed metrics translates measured sensor data into token awards, demonstrates upper and lower limits dictated by the grid generation mix profile, and indicates that there is the potential for load shifting to minimize carbon emissions without considering the scale of consumption.
Muhammad Tahir, Najma Ismat, Huma Hasan Rizvi, Asma Zaffar · 6 authors
The looming energy crisis is affecting every sector of the world. The dire need to conserve energy has compelled researchers to bring automation to the power sector. The conservation of energy is one of the biggest challenges Third-World countries are facing in general and in Europe due to the Russian–Ukrainian war. There is a need to introduce such systems that can prevent energy loss and let users buy and sell excessive electricity they have. In the field of power and electricity, the Internet of Things (IoT) plays an active role in the conservation of energy. The new concept of smart grids is widely used for efficient transmission. The technique of blockchain can further reduce the wastage of energy and efficient consumption if it is used with smart grids. This article proposes a smart energy meter based on smart grids and blockchain. The proposed implementation is a demonstration containing a few microgrids, each with its very own blockchain. The users will use energy by making transactions, following the smart contracts. The focus is on the peer-to-peer transactions in a microgrid controlled by blockchain. The architectural design outcomes are a smart energy meter, a smart contract on the Ethereum blockchain, and an android application to monitor and control transactions and energy trade via smart contracts with other consumers.
In this paper, a novel microgrid (MG) restoration framework is proposed based on Blockchain Technology (BCT). The proposed method consists of a two-stage restoration process. In the first stage, stable Blockchain (BC) links are formulated with the grid-forming Distributed Energy Resources (DERs). In the second stage, load assignment is carried out based on the priority level of the load. The miners run through the consensus mechanism to accommodate the priority-based loads to their corresponding BC links. The consensus mechanism provides the value of an index, known as Combined Stability Measurement (CSM). The BC link, with the higher CSM value, is declared as the winner of the consensus mechanism. Subsequently, the targeted priority load is assigned to that winner BC link. The proposed BCT-based restoration framework is tested with the modified IEEE-33 and IEEE-69 bus test systems using the Ethereum blockchain platform.
Pedro N. Vasconcelos, Giuseppe Silva, Antônio Carlos Zambroni de Souza, Benedito I. Fuly
Given the emergence of shared databases and distributed ledger technologies such as blockchain, this paper presents a short discussion about how the electric power sector can benefit from the inclusion of such systems and contribute to pushing efforts toward achieving the United Nations Goals for the Sustainable Development. With increasing attention to community-backed energy projects focused on the procurement of green energy, the development of a transparent and reliable medium for the record and publication of carbon emissions of different generators, utilities, and aggregators can promote a technological update of the current local electricity market platforms and enable the participation of different agent archetypes. Given this, this paper provides an overview of blockchain applications and decentralized governance models, as well as their potential for the transition to renewable energies. The authors then propose a framework that connects these concepts to the negotiation infrastructures of present energy markets in a form that may empower electricity customers and have benefits that transcend the local economy, environment, and democracy.
Komal Akram Khan, Toqeer Ahmed, Ümit Cali, Pablo Arboleyá · 6 authors
In recent years, there has been a growing trend in research on smart contract applications. Smart contracts potential in the energy landscape is visible in their major applications such as peer-to-peer energy trading, electric vehicle charging, energy market management, and many more. Many studies have been conducted that produced a lot of literature in this area and many startups and companies have surfaced that exhibit large scope of its application in the energy sector. However, in comparison to other domains, there is still more development required. The literature available focuses on the different technical aspects and use cases, but there's no such scientific article providing gathered details of the smart contracts development process that invites the attention of researchers in the energy domain for development or provides basic knowledge of available tools. It is therefore necessary to contribute with academic articles that summarize this information, thus opening up paths of development in this field and strengthening the community. This paper is the first step towards the implementation of this idea and that is intended to be extended in the future.
The participation of prosumers in demand-response programs is essential for the success of demand-side management in renewable-powered energy grids. Unfortunately, the engagement is still low due to concerns related to the privacy of their energy data used in the prediction processes. In this paper, we propose a blockchain-based distributed federated learning (FL) technique for energy-demand prediction that combines FL with blockchain to provide data privacy and trust features for energy prosumers. The privacy-sensitive energy data are stored locally at edge prosumer nodes without revealing it to third parties, with only the learned local model weights being shared using a blockchain network. The global federated model is not centralized but distributed and replicated over the blockchain overlay, ensuring the model immutability and provenance of parameter updates. We had proposed smart contracts to deal with the integration of local machine-learning prediction models with the blockchain, defining functions for the model parameters’ scaling and reduction of blockchain overhead. The centralized, local-edge, and blockchain-integrated models are comparatively evaluated for prediction of energy demand 24 h ahead using a multi-layer perceptron model and the monitored energy data of several prosumers. The results show only a slight decrease in prediction accuracy in the case of blockchain-based distributed FL with reliable data privacy support compared with the centralized learning solution.
Abhinav Rakesh Chopra, Nirmal‐Kumar C. Nair, Rizki Dian Rahayani
VA3, is a novel web3.0 based individual peer-to-peer platform for electricity settlement between individual New Zealanders with the ability to trade at a sub-household level i.e., multiple accounts within a single home or a portable account per person. We were able create a web3 application based on the base Ethereum network to successfully automate at individual person’s power consumption and production which is fed into a smart contract using a software update to modify the home router to basically act as a home energy management system and then settlements are automatically managed by the smart contracts.
Athira Jayavarma S, P. K. Preetha, Manjula G. Nair
By having power consumption closer to the source of generation and preventing losses in transmission and distribution, decentralized energy production and consumption significantly helps to save the planet's ecosystem and climate. Emerging intelligent technologies that support energy transactions can expedite the growth and speed up the use of distributed eco-friendly energy sources. Distributed energy technologies are crucial since they are built specifically to generate, store, and distribute green energy. The integration of blockchain technology in the electrical power and energy domain have the capability to promote the adoption of renewable energy sources and offer a solid foundation for tracking real-time data on energy utilization. Additionally, blockchain can facilitate trade between autonomous actors, which could develop more secure energy communities. Smart contracts have become an interesting research area in various fields due to the increased popularity and expanded applications of blockchain technology. In this paper, the advantages of blockchain and smart contracts in energy trading are emphasized. This paper gives an overview of different techniques and areas to be considered for implementing smart contracts for energy transactions.
In order to accommodate the growing amounts of integrated renewable production, including wind and solar PV, energy networks are undergoing significant adjustments. In recent years, the growth of renewable energy sources (RES) has been greatly accelerated thanks to the privatization and deregulation of the energy industry, as well as financial incentives and energy policy measures. As decentralized energy generation is developed through residential and commercial PV applications, a new position described as an energy prosumer is produced. The traditional division between energy users and producers is eliminated as a result. Blockchain technology automate direct energy transactions inside a distributed system architecture based on consensus-based verification and cryptographic hashing, providing utilities, prosumers, and consumers with a one-of-a-kind, cost-effective, and secure energy-trading system. The objective of this project is to implement a general ABM simulation framework for energy exchange and demonstrate the operation of any blockchain process as well as the expected power profiles of homes. A robust multi-agent structure was constructed and simulated for a Transactive Energy (TE) type Distributed Energy Resources (DER) within the ECCH microgrid that is dependent on blockchain engineering. Auction systems are used in recent blockchain-based LEM plans to balance supply and demand in the future. These blockchain-based LEMs rely on accurate short-term forecasts of the energy generation and consumption of particular homes as a consequence. Such accurate estimations are usually only assumed. In the present study, this assumption was tested by first evaluating the forecast accuracy that can be obtained for particular families using state-of-the-art energy forecasting methods, and then by examining the effects of prediction mistakes on market outcomes in three alternative supply scenarios. The evaluation showed that an LSTM model may provide rather little predicting errors. The prediction process will be modified to fit the design of a blockchain-based LEM. Because of this, the current study differs greatly from past investigations that make a thorough effort to predict the time sequence of smart meters generally.
Energy generated through centralized power plants is eventually being replaced by Renewable energy. Due to its highly volatile nature, it aids to the fluctuations in the generation of power. These fluctuations cause major inconvenience to the consumers. Due to these disadvantages, the integration of RE into the grid poses serious challenges. The conventional grid system is also not secure from hacking. We must ensure a reliable balance between generation, consumption, and the players in the grid. We also need to make sure the grid and the communication in the grid network is secure. To tackle these challenges, we introduce a trade between the prosumers and consumers in a Peer-to-Peer fashion. All this can be achieved with the help of a blockchain network and smart contracts. Blockchain is a safe, secure and reliable platform and is tamper-proof. This paper presents the use of Blockchain and smart contracts to design a framework for energy trading in the developing countries.
Ümit Cali, Murat Kuzlu, D. Jonathan Sebastian-Cardenas, Onur Elma · 6 authors
Decarbonization of energy systems has been a recent trend during the last two decades where large-scale renewable energy sources (RES) are integrated into the modern power systems. Various countries have developed new energy policy instruments, such as Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs), to promote the growth of RES. RECs are tradable, non-tangible assets, which have a monetary value. Tracking and certification of the origin of an energy resource regardless of its type (e.g., a conventional power plant or RES) are a critical operation. In addition to the certification of origin, trading transactions must be performed using a secure method. Energy industry participants need to secure the data and applications related to RECs. Digitalization technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and distributed ledger technology (DLT) are among the most popular and promising options. DLT is a perfect framework that can support such REC functionalities. This paper addresses the cybersecurity aspects in REC trading using blockchain and distributed ledger technology, considering detailed cybersecurity perspectives and aspects of adopting technology from an organizational perspective.
Intermittent distributed energy resources (DERs) add challenges to the modern power system network. On the other hand, information and communication technology (ICT) is changing traditional electricity grids into smart grids, which facilitates a decentralized system in which prosumers may participate in energy trading. Smart grids, DER integration, and network connectivity are adding complexity to the power system network day by day; Blockchain technology might be a great tool to manage the network’s operational complexity. The Blockchain provides for quicker, frictionless, secure, and transparent transactions. With the addition of smart contracts, it may be utilized to manage the expanding complexity of the contemporary power system. In this study, the authors focus on the scope, challenges, and potential future direction of Blockchain technology application in the power system. Blockchain has received interest and has been used for decentralized power system applications in recent years, but it is still young and has scalability, decentralization, and security concerns. This article discusses the interfaces and the possibilities that can assure trust, security, and transparency in decentralized power system applications and make a decentralized power system and power market possible.
Roberto Tonelli, Michele Marchesi, Andrea Pinna, Mario Mureddu · 7 authors
Transmission and Distribution Systems Operators are facing the need for new market tools able to evaluate the potential of flexibility contracting, with smart and decentralized energy production, consumption, and exchange. The blockchain technology, has been proposed in platforms and projects for energy trading, given that BC platforms natively support not only decentralization but also transparency, privacy, smart grid management, token trading, pseudo-anonymity, and other desirable features of a smart and decentralized market. However, BC software projects are complex, may be large, and often exposed to critical failures. To reduce the chance of such failures and to improve the quality of the software development process, this paper introduces software development methodologies for blockchain applications specific to the decentralized energy market. By using Blockchain Oriented Software Engineering (BOSE) and Agile Block-Chain Dapp Engineering (ABCDE), a novel decentralized application based on an energy token is proposed, defined by a smart contract on the ERC721 standard, that can be refilled, resold, emptied, and traded even without any energy content. According to the ABCDE methodology, the system has been divided into two subsystems, the BC and the application levels, and determined the actors and the related use case diagrams.
Xin Zhou, Liaoyi Ning, Bin Wang, Chao Yang · 6 authors
Load shedding scheme is utilized to deal with black-outs caused by continuously growing loads. Conventional load shedding scheme repressively shed interruptible loads ignoring the economic profits of them. This paper proposes a smart contract based load shedding scheme in an industrial park. The proposed scheme incentivizes factories in the industrial park to actively shed their interruptible loads by designing a market that maximizes the total social welfare. Furthermore, the load shedding process is implemented using a smart contract to automatically obtain trustable and transparent load shedding results. The modified IEEE 33-bus distribution case proves that the proposed load shedding scheme effectively increases the profits of all participating factories and incentivizes them to shed their interruptible loads.
Compared to other applications of distributed ledger technologies, for example, in decentralized finance, non-fungible tokens, and logistics, Blockchain applications in the energy industry have not found widespread dissemination and fell short of market expectations during the Blockchain hype in the late 2010s. In semi-structured qualitative interviews with leading providers in the energy industry, conducted from 2019 to 2021, hurdles in energy applications are compared with a control group of additional interviews with representatives of companies operating in IT and FinTech. The analysis uses a framework covering technical feasibility, desirability, and economic viability, as well as the role of regulatory frameworks. The interviews reveal that the first Blockchain applications suffered from a combination of technological constraints and inter-platform competition. Due to the permissionless configuration of the early energy Blockchains, they were slow in terms of transaction speed compared to existing platforms and prices per transaction were high, in addition to high degrees of complexity related to requirements from both critical-infrastructure systems and financial market regulation. The analysis further points to the slow adoption of Blockchain applications in the energy sector being related to business models rather focusing on products and platforms as well as on transactional rather than procedural use cases, with a high degree of standardization of the offering and low levels of inclusiveness concerning processes. The move from transaction platforms to innovation platforms and the emergence of Blockchain as a service provider—plus technical advances with regards to high-frequency transactions combined with the increasing importance of use cases, such as proof of origin for fuels or e-charging—may induce a shift from pilot applications to commercialization within the larger innovation ecosystem. While the involvement of Blockchain solutions in energy markets increases with pilot projects and with this, the acceptance of players and stakeholders in the energy ecosystem, a big hurdle for innovation remains the regulation of energy markets to allow for peer-to-peer trading, a usage-driven distribution of network costs, and bottom-up pricing markets.
M R Jivtesh, Rohit Mathew Samuel, M R Gaushik, Siddhi Menon · 6 authors
Blockchain is the underlying technology for cryptocurrencies. Reliable machine-to-machine automatic transactions, such as auctions, bidding, and payments, utilise the immense potential of blockchain technology. Researchers are exploring blockchain-based applications for automobiles and transportation, such as electric vehicle (EV) charging and highway user fee payment. The use of blockchain eliminates the need for third parties in transactions. This paper presents a proof of concept for using EVs as energy storage in a smart grid system. Generators, consumers, and distributed energy resources (DER), such as solar and wind, make up the elements of a smart grid. We propose storing the surplus power generated by DER in the electric vehicle's battery. When the generation is less, or there is high demand, these EVs can supply the stored energy back to the grid. We use blockchain smart contracts and Ethereum cryptocurrency to monitor and monetise the process. We also make a cost comparison of conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles and EVs, analysing the financial benefits of employing the suggested method in EV charging instead of more conventional charging methods.