With the large-scale deployment of renewable energy sources, the power trading system faces dual challenges of trust and efficiency. In this paper, we propose a novel distributed trusted transaction strategy for virtual power plants by using smart contracts on Hyperledger Fabric to provide energy services. A matching mechanism has been defined to realize automatic matching between purchases and sales. Furthermore, transaction records are stored in a blockchain distributed ledger, which will prevent trade disputes in transaction settlements. The Golang programming language is utilized to generate the transaction smart contracts, and a modified IEEE 33-bus distribution system is selected as the case study in order to develop and verify this market framework. The results show that the proposed solution successfully improves the efficiency and safety of power transactions, and benefits both purchases and sales in the virtual power plant.
The Energy Internet (EI) and Smart Grid 2.0 (SG 2.0) concepts are potential challenges in industry and research. The purpose of SG 2.0 and EI is to automate innovative power grid operations. To move from Distribution Network Operators (DSO) to consumer-centric distributed power grid management, the blockchain and smart contracts are applicable. Blockchain technology and integrated SGs will present challenges, limiting the deployment of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs). This review looks at the decentralization of the Smart Grid 2.0 using blockchain technology. Energy trading has increased due to access to distributed energy sources and electricity producers who can financially export surplus fuels. The energy trading system successfully combines energy from multiple sources to ensure consistent and optimal use of available resources and better facilities for energy users. Peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading is a common field of study that presents some administrative and technical difficulties. This article provides a general overview of P2P energy exchange. It discusses how blockchain can improve transparency and overall performance, including the degree of decentralization, scalability, and device reliability. The research is extended to examine unresolved issues and potential directions for P2P blockchain-based energy sharing in the future. In fact, this paper also demonstrates the importance of blockchain in future smart grid activities and its blockchain-based applications. The study also briefly examines the issues associated with blockchain integration, ensuring the decentralized, secure and scalable operation of autonomous electric grids in the future.
Guanjun Zhao, Lizhong Jia, Jie Xu, Chang Liu · 6 authors
With the advent of the era of power trading, how to balance the interests of all parties has become the key to the development of electric power information. The Multi-Microgrid model has gradually become an important part of power trading due to its reliability and efficiency, but how to balance the profit game among the Multi-Microgrid has gradually become a difficult problem for market development. In view of the distributed transaction environment of multi-micro network, we propose to use blockchain technology for multi-party transaction, use Stackelberg game model to achieve the best balance of interests of all participants, and zero-knowledge proof combined with secret sharing scheme is used to achieve effective access control in transactions. We simulate and test the performance indexes of the scheme, and the results show that our scheme is feasible.
M A C L Gunarathna, Rebecca Yang, Sajani Jayasuriya, K Wang · 6 authors
Abstract The involvement of many stakeholders from diverse sectors throughout the distributed solar energy (DSE) project lifecycle and their discrete commitments to the project have lessened the stakeholder understanding in each other’s contribution. Communication between the stakeholders is not continuous and systematic; thus, the project information is not well-communicated for accurate decision making. Therefore, DSE projects have not yet won the complete stakeholder trust and its adoption in the building industry is not yet fully accepted. This study aims at exploring the opportunities for using blockchain technology to reduce/eliminate the trust issues and communication gaps along the DSE lifecycle. The study conducts 50 semi-structured interviews with building and energy stakeholders to identify the issues/ limitations which (1) reduce the stakeholder trust on DSE technologies and applications and (2) generate communication gaps along the DSE project lifecycle. Findings reveal that most of the issues/ limitations occurred due to the unavailability of a common platform for communication and information sharing, unavailability of information, improper record keeping and limited information security. The unique features of blockchain technology such as (1) distributed ledger technology (DLT), (2) smart contracts, (3) token-based access control, and (4) automated consensus and forking can effectively eliminate the identified issues/ limitations by providing (1) information accuracy and reliability, (2) information security, (3) open access to project information, (4) systematic record keeping and (5) proper governance of the system. The outcome of this study provides a systematic approach to increase the quality of communication in DSE projects design and management.
With the rapid development of renewable energy generation, governments have released various policies to reduce the portion of the energy generated from the burning of fossil fuel, of which the carbon emission tax is one of the most effective methods. Blockchain is considered as the optimal ecosystem to protect and trace the energy transactions with carbon taxes. This paper proposes a distributed Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) public blockchain with a smart contract function to support a double auction based pricing scheme and execute a carbon tax compensation mechanism, which reduce the trading cost of prosumers and improve the social welfare. A 13-prosumer energy trading model is performed in the case study to experiment the blockchain performance. Numerical results prove the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed method.
Blockchain is a special technology for peer-to-peer (P2P) trading platforms, which uses decentralized storage to record all transaction data. Blockchain was first used in 2009 in the infrastructure of the financial sector of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency. Recently, further applications have evolved in this area to provide decentralized transaction storage by employing innovative mechanisms that enable decentralized operation. This mechanism is called a smart contract that operates based on individually defined rules (e.g., quality, quantity, and price specifications) that enable an independent matching of market players at the distribution level on the supplier side and their potential customers and end-users as well as prosumers. In this article, in addition to introducing the concept of Blockchain, the way this cutting-edge technology deals with different agents in the energy sector and markets and its impact on the operation performance of the electricity and energy industry have been examined. Thus, merging other emerging technologies and platforms, such as big data analysis, the Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI) with Blockchain, can solve many practical open challenges in smart electrical grids and the energy domain. This article delves into the impacts of integrating these platforms to boost the interoperability between different components and enhance the liquidity of markets.
Laurenţiu Mihai Ionescu, Alin Gheorghita Mazare, N. Ionescu, A.I. Lita
Monitoring current consumption in a smart grid involves, along with the acquisition of power consumption in different nodes of the network (through current and voltage sensors), the transmission of measured values through a local network to a central server. From a security point of view, communications between nodes and the central server are exposed. Also, the central server may be exposed to catastrophic attacks or faults that lead to data loss. The solution proposed by us in this paper, uses a private blockchain network and smart contracts based on Ethereum for the transmission of data from nodes. The advantages are: data integrity is ensured, synchronization between nodes as well as ensuring data protection by multiplying them on all nodes. The disadvantage would seem to be related to the increase in energy consumption that each blockchain node involves. As will be presented in the paper, this disadvantage will be removed by its own blockchain solution in which the consensus algorithm is adapted to low power consumption. Together with the own archiving method presented in the article, the solution is an efficient one, implementable at the level of nodes. Data will be presented in comparative analyzes with classic server solutions.
Jingya Dong, Chunhe Song, Tao Zhang, Youjun Hu · 6 authors
Blockchain technology provides the possibility for the realization of decentralized energy trading. However, the blockchain confronts privacy risks and efficiency issues, which hinder its application in energy trading. In this paper, to solve this problem, we propose an efficient and privacy-preserving decentralized energy trading scheme in a blockchain environment. We propose an account mapping algorithm to solve the privacy attack problem. We propose a new transaction processing method, which can protect private data and improve execution efficiency by two-layer transaction processing. Finally, we verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme for privacy protection and trading efficiency of decentralized energy transactions through experiments.
Mehran Hajiaghapour‐Moghimi, Kamyar Azimi Hosseini, Ehsan Hajipour, Mehdi Vakilian
Abstract In recent years, the mining of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin has attracted much global attention due to the simplicity and high profitability of this business, especially in countries with low electricity rates. The process of cryptocurrency mining using cryptocurrency mining devices requires a significant amount of computing power. This industry, which is increasingly growing in energy and carbon emissions, can cause environmental concerns. Common ways to reduce this amount of energy consumption are to prohibit mining and charge these loads at a higher electricity rate; however, these solution methods are not feasible and applicable in many countries. This paper presents an energy efficiency program to persuade the customers to mine cryptocurrency using high‐efficient cryptocurrency mining devices (CMDs), including informative, regulation, and financial policy instruments. This energy efficiency approach suggests a standard, if implemented, would ban the application of inefficient CMDs, and would encourage the cryptocurrency miners to improve the profitability of their business with high‐efficient CMDs through a penalty‐reward strategy. The performance of this energy efficiency program is studied through an analysis of data gathered from different CMDs used in Iran. The effectiveness of this suggested program is proved through its sufficient incentives for miners using high‐efficient CMDs.
Marco Marcozzi, Leonardo Mostarda, Diletta Cacciagrano
As micro grids and blockchain gained the interest and attention of both academia and the industry, the interaction between the two technologies seems inevitable. However, there are challenges to overcome in order to actually realize the integration between micro grids and blockchains. In this article, we review the solutions proposed to enhance micro grids with blockchains. We discuss the scalability challenges and the opportunities derived from the off-chaining computing techniques. In this context, we draft a design to implement a micro grid-based peer-to-peer local energy market, powered by an off-chain computing protocol called DIVERSITY. DIVERSITY aims to shift the computational burden from a main blockchain to an intermediate layer of nodes, aggregating data and executing smart contracts off-chain. We simulate different data logging approaches, and it is found that DIVERSITY allows an actual saving on fees and power consumption derived from using a public blockchain platform, such as Ethereum, in order to assure a truly decentralized renewable energy distribution at a lower cost.
With the emergence of distributed energy generation through residential and commercial solar PV applications, new energy markets are created where consumers and producers are no longer separated, giving rise to the concept of energy prosumers. In a distributed database architecture that utilizes cryptographic hashing and consensus-based verification, blockchain technology offers utilities, consumers and prosumers with a novel, secure, and cost-effective energy-trading solution that automates direct energy transactions. A blockchain-based energy trading simulation environment integrated with a Geographic Information System (GIS) is proposed in this study for Qatar’s Education City Community Housing (ECCH). A comprehensive amount of daily energy activity data is collected and analyzed as part of the approach for recreating spatiotemporal characteristics of trading in a small marketplace. Through this type of simulation, stakeholders can better understand the dynamics of a real trading market, and thus make better decisions for developing a decentralized energy market. Using GIS information and an agent-based design, the results indicate that the characteristics of transactions executed in a local housing market can be easily tailored by adjusting parameters. It is possible to improve model performance by employing high-performance computing to conduct large-scale simulations with many agents to provide more realistic outcomes. The model offers a scalable environment for analyzing an energy blockchain from the perspective of Qatari society, finance, and technology.
Maria Luisa Di Silvestre, P. Gallo, Giovani Lorenzo Restifo, Eleonora Riva Sanseverino · 6 authors
The Blorin project started at the end of 2019 to support the implementation of a blockchain platform to support the energy services provision from end users by means of Demand Response and Vehicle to Grid programs. The experimental part of the project is being carried out on two Mediterranean islands and inside the University campus in Palermo. Customized smart contracts have been designed to support the active participation of end users to regulation services for the two weak electrical grids of the islands in the view of a deep penetration of renewable energy in the two energy systems. In particular, the smart contract for remuneration accounts for the very special energy situation of islands where TSO, DSO, energy seller and aggregator collapse in a unique market actor. Moreover, in islands the electricity provision is typically still relying on diesel generators thus strongly connecting the Demand Response programs benefit to the reduction of fuel consumption, as an effect of increased efficiency of diesel generators. Due to the critical international situation and to the climate crisis, fossil fuels get more and more costly, thus a speed up of the energy transition in small islands is highly needed. This paper addresses the problem of designing a customized smart contract for remuneration of Demand Response service provision in small islands.
Over time, distribution systems have begun to include increased distributed energy resources (DERs) due to the advancement of auxiliary power electronics, information and communication technologies (ICT), and cost reductions. Electric vehicles (EVs) will undoubtedly join the energy community alongside DERs, and energy transfers from vehicles to grids and vice versa will become more extensive in the future. Virtual power plants (VPPs) will also play a key role in integrating these systems and participating in wholesale markets. Energy trading on a peer-to-peer (P2P) basis is a promising business model for transactive energy that aids in balancing local supply and demand. Moreover, a market scheme between VPPs can help DER owners make more profit while reducing renewable energy waste. For this purpose, an inter-VPP P2P trading scheme is proposed. The scheme utilizes cutting-edge technologies of the Avalanche blockchain platform, developed from scratch with decentralized finance (DeFi), decentralized applications (DApps), and Web3 workflows in mind. Avalanche is more scalable and has faster transaction finality than its layer-1 predecessors. It provides interoperability abilities among other common blockchain networks, facilitating inter-VPP P2P trading between different blockchain-based VPPs. The merits of DeFi contribute significantly to the workflow in this type of energy trading scenario, as the price mechanism can be determined using open market-like instruments. A detailed case study was used to examine the effectiveness of the proposed scheme and flow, and important conclusions were drawn.
Laurence L. Delina, Rainbow Yi Hung Lam, Wing Shun Tang, Ka Ying Wong
Decentralized renewable energy installations, such as home or building solar PV, can be funded through digital fintech instruments, such as via peer-to-peer trading. This is an innovation merging two different sectors: energy and finance. But who could be the actors in this new ecosystem? How is this blending of the digital or the fintech and the renewable energy sectors perceived? This talk highlights on Hong Kong, a global financial centre, as it seeks to become an international hub for green finance and expand renewable energy contributions in its energy mix. Reporting the outcome of an expert elicitation work, the talk describes a prospective actor/institution landscape of this emergent ecosystem. We found that not only energy and finance actors will most likely be engaged in this innovation, but also those in the technology and research sectors. The general public is also seen as a key actor. The talk also surfaces expert perceptions on the possible impacts of this innovation on Hong Kong. This includes new opportunities for citizen participation in energy transition as these new investment vehicles are made available. The innovation, however, is challenged by Hong Kong's distinct electricity market regime and lack of space for technology deployment.
Conor Mullaney, Adnan Aijaz, Nathan Sealey, Ben Holden
Peer-to-Peer (P2P) energy trading provides various benefits over conventional wholesale energy markets and makes renewable energy more accessible. This paper proposes a novel multi-layer P2P energy trading system for microgrids based on IOTA 2.0, which is a distributed ledger technology (DLT) primarily designed for Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications. The proposed energy trading system, which is a manifestation of a cyber-physical system (CPS), exploits the benefits brought by IOTA's unique ledger structure as well as the recently introduced IOTA smart contract protocol (ISCP). Further, it implements a uniform double-auction market mechanism and a hierarchical routing structure for interconnected microgrids. Performance evaluation demonstrates key benefits over wholesale markets as well as speed, energy efficiency and cost benefits over conventional blockchain-based P2P energy trading systems.
This paper presents a method to implement cooperative Demand Side Management (DSM) approaches over a distributed communication network. Our method combines a decentralized DSM approach called Profile Steering with two distributed consensus mechanisms Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake (PoS). We make use of a network manager to moderate the network and a distributed ledger system to store the power profiles from each planning period.We evaluate our approach using publicly-available real data from 25 houses. We successfully implemented our distributed approach in Python using JSON files as blocks and performed time-performance evaluations of this implementation. We show that, distributed DSM for day-ahead planning using blockchain concepts is possible and adds an overhead of only 0.98 seconds and 3.99 seconds in the case of PoW and PoS respectively.
Joey H. Li, Münür Sacit Herdem, Jatin Nathwani, John Z. Wen
Information technologies involving artificial Intelligence, big data, Internet of Things devices and blockchain have been developed and implemented in many engineering fields worldwide. Existing review articles focus on developments and characteristics of individual topics and the associated deployment in the energy sector. These technologies, all based on communication, information, and data analysis, are naturally coherent and integrable. This article reviews the literature and patents in four closely related fields and aims to provide a holistic view of how they are related and their integrability in relation to smart energy management strategies. Artificial intelligence models forecast energy use and load profiles as well as schedule resources to ensure reliable performance and effective utilization of energy resources. Training artificial intelligence models requires immense volumes of data. Utilizing big data systems and data mining enables the discovery of new functions and relationships, which determines the performance of artificial intelligence. Data mining also refines the information; thus, artificial intelligence is trained iteratively with more accurate data. Smart energy management can be further enhanced through advanced digital technologies like Internet of Things and blockchain. An Internet of Things platform containing edge, fog and cloud layers helps connect artificial intelligence to other hardware and software devices and systems. Furthermore, an Internet of Things platform efficiently transmits and stores data, improving access and availability to stakeholders for data mining. Emerging technologies such as blockchain and cryptocurrency facilitate energy trading and can be designed in the cloud layer of an Internet of Things platform to supplement data storage. Providing an efficient and seamless integration of artificial intelligence, big data, and advanced digital technologies will be an important factor in the emerging transition of the energy sector to a lower-carbon system.
Abstract A global push to achieve universal electricity access, paired with drastic reductions in the cost of decentralized electricity technologies, has led to significant research on how best to roll out access to rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa. Various geospatial electrification models have been developed to aid the decision-making process considering decentralized grid alternatives such as mini-grids and solar home systems. Despite these tools suggesting that in many cases, decentralized systems are a more cost-effective electricity access pathway, grid extension still predominates in practice. This is due, at least in part, to institutional structures in most countries that provide significant direct and indirect subsidies to grid extension projects, commonly through publicly-owned utilities. These sources of finance are generally not available to primarily privately operated off-grid energy service providers. However, the subsidy provided for grid extension projects is not well understood. In this paper, we employ utility grid extension costs and revenue data, and geospatial grid infrastructure data to estimate the size and distribution of subsidy implicitly provided to rural grid extension projects for 129 communities in Mombasa County, Kenya. We also estimate subsidies for hypothetical off-grid electricity systems in the same communities that would deliver equivalent services to the grid. We allocate the cost of shared medium voltage (MV) distribution infrastructure using a marginal and an average cost method for grid extension and compare these with subsidies for off-grid systems. We find that the average of average subsidy per customer across communities for grid extension is US$5,118 and US$5,330 for the two MV cost allocation methods respectively, while for the off-grid systems the corresponding average of average subsidies are US$3,380, using a real discount rate of 1.3% evaluated from a nominal discount rate of 8% and inflation rate of 6.7%. Our results show that in the communities in our case study, 40% and 37% of the communities would command less subsidy while served by minigrids over the grid, and the switch would save 50% and 54% of the total cost for average and marginal cost allocation methods respectively. We also show that by using a multi-model approach to electrification and by reallocation of implicit subsidies that have been exclusive to grid extension to other technology options utilities can cast the net wider, without an increase in budgets.
Energy systems are transforming due to the incorporation of multiple distributed energy resources, such as renewable energy and battery storage systems. This transformation has triggered a need to shift power distribution from a low efficiency centralized model with high coordination costs to a decentralized distribution system comprising smart grids. Researchers have discovered a number of uses for blockchain technology in the energy sector because of its decentralized structure and possibility for safe transactions. In order to pinpoint current trends and important research directions in this area, this article thoroughly examines the effects of blockchain technology on smart grids and distributed energy resources. The aim of this paper is also to identify research gaps and future research initiatives in the area of blockchain-based energy distribution. To do this, 92 research publications were subjected to a comprehensive literature review based on predetermined criteria. Transactive Energy, Electric Vehicle Integration, Privacy and Security, and Demand Response, together with some other relatively fresh and unexplored topics, were, therefore, highlighted as four major focal areas of blockchain energy research. We have also drawn attention to the gaps in the research that has already been done and the constraints imposed by present systems that must be removed before blockchain technology can be widely used.