There is an increasing number of end-users that are moving from just consumers of electricity in their households to participate in other type of consumption, such as Electrical Vehicles ("EV"), and to produce electricity, on their roofs for example, even the EV chargers can inject electricity to the grid. That is the evolution of the consumers to prosumers: production + consumption. This document will only focus on one type of energy, electricity. However, most of the applications should be thought for any other type of energy. Such platform would generate transactions in real-time allowing individual and aggregate transactions to be made by users, generating new business opportunities. These transactions could be between end-users and the grid, in any direction, thus generating millions of transactions in many directions. To handle that, this document proposes a distributed platform that uses smart contracts that can be trustworthy, scalable, and flexible to allow the users to share energy with others and make secure transactions. The platform would generate instantly and locally without the need of a centralized server, with the use of the blockchain technology. For billing purposes, transactions can be grouped and aggregated on monthly basis. It is a requirement to ensure communication of all participating users. In the power market nowadays, these users do not perform any operations in their metering equipment, but simply read, record, and serve information. It will be necessary to ensure that they can offer that capacity in the desired granularity. The inclusion of machine learning to the system will provide the capability of analyzing the enormous amount of data that will be generated and exchanges every minute. Smart contracts and distributed ledgers technologies offer a solution for these challenges providing security to the transactions at a lower cost than a centralized system. In a distributed platform the necessary investment is smaller.
Nihar Ranjan Pradhan, Akhilendra Pratap Singh, S. Sudha, K. Hemanth Kumar Reddy · 5 authors
With the electric power grid experiencing a rapid shift to the smart grid paradigm over a deregulated energy market, Internet of Things (IoT)-based solutions are gaining prominence, and innovative peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading at a micro level is being deployed. Such advancement, however, leaves traditional security models vulnerable and paves the path for blockchain, a distributed ledger technology (DLT), with its decentralized, open, and transparency characteristics as a viable alternative. However, due to deregulation in energy trading markets, most of the prototype resilience regarding cybersecurity attack, performance and scalability of transaction broadcasting, and its direct impact on overall performances and attacks are required to be supported, which becomes a performance bottleneck with existing blockchain solutions such as Hyperledger, Ethereum, and so on. In this paper, we design a novel permissioned Corda framework for P2P energy trading peers that not only mitigates a new class of cyberattacks, i.e., delay trading (or discard), but also disseminates the transactions in a optimized propagation time, resulting in a fair transaction distribution. Sharing transactions in a permissioned R3 Corda blockchain framework is handled by the Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP) and transport layer security (TLS). The unique contribution of this paper lies in the use of an optimized CPU and JVM heap memory scenario analysis with P2P metric in addition to a far more realistic multihosted testbed for the performance analysis. The average latencies measured are 22 ms and 51 ms for sending and receiving messages. We compare the throughput by varying different types of flow such as energy request, request + pay, transfer, multiple notary, sender, receiver, and single notary. In the proposed framework, request is an energy asset that is based on payment state and contract in the P2P energy trading module, so in request flow, only one node with no notary appears on the vault of the node.Energy request + pay flow interaction deals with two nodes, such as producer and consumer, to deal with request and transfer of asset ownership with the help of a notary. Request + repeated pay flow request, on node A and repeatedly transfers a fraction of energy asset state to another node, B, through a notary.
Mirza Jabbar Aziz Baig, M. Tariq Iqbal, Mohsin Jamil, Jahangir Khan
Renewable energy resources have been gaining ground in recent years and we are on the verge of a decentralized energy market with consumers becoming prosumers. Platforms that facilitate peer-to-peer (P2P) sale or purchase of energy are therefore essential. This paper presents a way to trade energy across P2P networks using blockchain technology. The main server is a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B (Pi4B), on which the user interface (UI) as well as the private Ethereum blockchain are configured. The blockchain also implements a smart contract. For the purpose of developing the UI that provides assistance in conducting trading activities, an open-source Angular framework is used. Also explored in the study is the development of an Internet of Things (IoT) server using the latest ESP32-S3 microcontroller. The field instrumentation devices (FIDs) are connected to the microcontroller for the purpose of data acquisition and for subsequent transmission to an IoT server. The blockchain network maintains a record of all transactions in an immutable manner. Assuring security is achieved through a local configuration of the system, hosted on a private network with restricted access. For the purposes of information security and data integrity, additional security measures are also considered, such as a secret recovery phrase, firewalls, login credentials and private key. Among the servers and clients, there is an implementation of a Hypertext Transfer Protocol. The P2P energy trading approach involving renewable energy designed for remote communities is explained and illustrated in this paper.
Mingxing Guo, Ke Zhang, Su Wang, Jinlei Xia · 7 authors
Traditional centralized transactions require a control center for user demand matching, settlement and other processes. However, with the increase in the penetration rate of distributed energy in the community, the explosive increase in the number of transactions leads to a decrease in efficiency and it is difficult to guarantee user privacy and information security. The smart contract technology based on blockchain technology has the characteristics of decentralization, traceability and tamper resistance, and these key factors show unique advantages in distributed energy transactions. This paper explores Ethereum and smart contract technology, designs a peer-to-peer energy sharing mechanism with reward and punishment incentives and establishes a smart contract trading platform for smart community-based virtual power plant (CVPP). This paper verifies the functionality and effectiveness of smart contract. The results show that when the supply and demand ratio changes, the user can conduct energy transactions according to the contract without a third-party organization, which solves the problem of trust between the two parties and achieves the expected effect and runs successfully. In addition, the simulation results show that the peer-to-peer transaction based on smart contracts reduces the energy cost per household and increases the total benefit of CVPP.
Most IoT-enabled smart grids are centralized. Blockchain-based decentralized systems are secure, private, transparent, stable, and auditable. Since Blockchain transactions are immutable, energy trade and tracking are more straightforward. Scalable connection and access control management are implemented in these networks through the queueing concept. By keeping this in mind, the present article proposes a priorityreservation queueing-based analytical model for Blockchain-assisted smart grid systems to facilitate easy accessibility between consumers and distributors. We also present various numerical findings to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed system.
Developments such as the increasing electrical energy demand, growth of renewable energy sources, cyber–physical security threats, increased penetration of electric vehicles (EVs), and unpredictable behavior of prosumers and EV users pose a range of challenges to the electric power system. To address these challenges, a decentralized system using blockchain technology and machine learning techniques for secure communication, distributed energy management and decentralized energy trading between prosumers is required. Blockchain enables secure distributed trust platforms, addresses optimization and reliability challenges, and allows P2P distributed energy exchange as well as flexibility services between customers. On the other hand, machine learning techniques enable intelligent smart grid operations by using prediction models and big data analysis. Motivated from these facts, in this review, we examine the potential of combining blockchain technology and machine learning techniques in the development of smart grid and investigate the benefits achieved by using both techniques for the future smart grid scenario. Further, we discuss research challenges and future research directions of applying blockchain and machine learning techniques for smart grids both individually as well as combining them together. The identified areas that require significant research are demand management in power grids, improving the security of grids with better consensus mechanisms, electric vehicle charging systems, scheduling of the entire grid system, designing secure microgrids, and the interconnection of different blockchain networks.
A flexible and adaptable market procurement of reactive power has the potential to improve network efficiency, voltage stability, and operational costs. In Europe, such a dynamic procurement must be in accordance with the European Union directive EU 2019/944 on non-frequency ancillary services. In accordance with this situation, a blockchain-based framework of market procurement of reactive power is proposed and presented in this paper. The devised framework is in alignment with the European Union’s directive to establish a non-discriminatory, transparent, and free market. Moreover, the blockchain-based framework is applicable at all network levels and allows for the variety of different distributed resources to participate. A two-layer blockchain topology is proposed to overcome scalability and transaction time issues. The first main-layer blockchain acts as the agent for trust and guarantees the immutability of data as well as the remuneration of participating market players. The second-layer blockchain facilitates direct access to tendering processes or auctions, fast transactions, and low transaction fees for involved stakeholders. Additionally, a decentralized oracle network is proposed to integrate external data into the second-layer blockchain. Data required for verifying the physical reactive power transactions are delivered by smart meters. The entire procurement process is automated by deploying smart contracts at the various blockchain layers. Thus, in principle, the involved stakeholders are the system operators and market players. For the purpose of validation, the holistic market procurement process is demonstrated and analyzed in a hardware-in-the-loop environment involving reactive power procurement at the distribution network level.
The construction of smart grids provides many benefits. Computational cost, however, drastically grows with an increase in scale since a large amount of data is generated, transmitted, collected, and treated. Although data aggregation technology is helpful when adopting smart grid applications, corresponding security and performance issues should be considered while implementing the mechanism. In this paper, a blockchain-enabled authenticated conserved data aggregation scheme is proposed to balance security concerns and the computational cost of the smart grid. Furthermore, several functions are developed in our scheme to highlight the contributions. First, efficient cryptographic algorithms are integrated instead of computationally-expensive ones. Second, the proposed scheme seamlessly incorporates a blockchain system into a smart grid for better decentralization which can avoid the possible threats and high cost of a centralized system. Third, the scheme is scalable, which can be adapted to manage a great number of metering devices. Fourth, the aggregational operations in our design combine power data and signature, which is more practical. Finally, the proposed scheme covers a one-time key pair and signature mechanism, thus upgrading the privacy protection of blockchain applications in the smart grid.
У даній кваліфікаційній роботі було проведено дослідження технології блокчейн,проведено аналіз атак та інцидентів на розумні контракти засновані на блокчейні Ethereum, розроблено модель загроз для блокчейн додатків та розроблено рекомендації з підвищення рівня захисту розумних контрактів . У роботі було досліджено атаки та інциденти пов`язані з розумними контрактами на платформі Ethereum. Було розглянуто такі атаки, як атака повторного входу,атака відтворення, атака на цілочисельне переповнення та інші.За результатами аналізу інцидентів було виділено 2 основні загрози які були використані на практиці для проведення атак на блокчейн дотатки-це атака повторного входу і фішинг. Була створена комплексна модель загроз які виникають при використанні додатків заснованих на технології блокчейн в мережі Ethereum. На основі проаналізованих інцидентів та грунтуючись на моделі загроз були сформовані рекомендації з підвищення рівня захищеності додатків заснованих на розумних контрактах Ключові слова: розумні контракти, атака, Ethereum, EVM, методи захисту.
This book provides a general overview of virtual power plants (VPP) as a key technology in future energy communities and active distribution and transmission networks for managing distributed energy resources, providing local and global services, and facilitating market participation of small-scale managing distributed energy resources and prosumers. The book also aims at describing some practical solutions, business models, and novel architectures for the implementation of VPPs in the real world. Each chapter of the book begins with the fundamental structure of the problem required for a rudimentary understanding of the methods described. It provides a clear picture for practical implementation of VPP through novel technologies such as blockchain, digital twin, and distributed ledger technology. The book will help the electrical and power engineers, undergraduate, graduate students, research scholars, and utility engineers to understand the emerging solutions regarding the VPP concept lucidly.
Smart internet of things (IoT) devices are used to manage domestic and industrial energy needs using sustainable and renewable energy sources. Due to cyber infiltration and a lack of transparency, the traditional transaction process is inefficient, unsafe and expensive. Smart grid systems are now efficient, safe and transparent owing to the development of blockchain (BC) technology and its smart contract (SC) solution. In this study, federated learning extreme gradient boosting (FL-XGB) framework has been developed along with BC to learn the intrusion inside the smart energy system. FL is best suited for a decentralized BC-enabled system to adapt learning models for trustworthy and reliable transactions. Many features and attributes of the Third International Knowledge Discovery and Data mining Tools Competition (KDD Cup 1999) dataset have been used in this study to perform experimental analysis. The likelihood of intrusions in the network is mathematically stated. The participant nodes run the BC based FL-Smart Contract (SC) algorithms to detect network intrusions. FL provided aggregated learning results from the experiment that was 99% accurate in predicting network intrusion. The experimentally determined block storage gain and retrieval gain were 97.5% and 95.4% respectively. The intrusion in the smart grid network was evaluated, and the data indicated that there was 1.2% illegal access. Moreover, the learning system’s accuracy, retrieval and storage intrusions, legal access and transaction processing times were considered for comparison. The proposed system outperformed contemporary research-developed systems targeted for the same application. Therefore, this study provides a guaranteed intrusion learning system and secure transaction system for smart grids.
Blockchain is a distributed decentralized peer-to-peer network, which is used for sharing data across a large number of entities in a trusted and secure way. Blockchain utilizes different mechanisms, such as hash functions, consensus algorithms, etc., for data verification and validation. In modern power systems, blockchain technology is used for balancing supply and demand, contributing to the demand-side management programs, and mainly, transitioning consumers to prosumers to trade electricity and reduce operational costs. This article aims at providing an in-depth discussion on energy transition and digitalization in power systems and investigating the role of blockchain technology in modern power systems. In addition, opportunities, challenges, and limitations of blockchain technology in modern power systems are discussed.
Emilio C. Piesciorovsky, Raymond Borges Hink, Aaron Werth, Gary Hahn · 6 authors
Electrical utility substations are wired with intelligent electronic devices (IEDs), such as protective relays, power meters, and communication switches. Substation engineers commission these IEDs to assess the appropriate measurements for monitoring, control, power system protection, and communication applications. Like real electrical utility substations, complex electrical substation grid testbeds (ESGTs) need to be assessed for measuring current and voltage signals in monitoring, power system protection, control (synchro check), and communication applications that are limited by small-measurement percentage errors. In the process of setting an ESGT with real-time simulators and IEDs in the loop, protective relays, power meters, and communication devices must be commissioned before running experiments. In this study, an ESGT with IEDs and distributed ledger technology was developed. The ESGT with a real-time simulator and IEDs in the loop was satisfactorily assessed and commissioned. The commissioning and problem-solving tasks of the testbed are described to define a method with flowcharts to assess possible troubleshooting in ESGTs. This method was based on comparing the simulations versus IED measurements for the phase current and voltage magnitudes, three-phase phasor diagrams, breaker states, protective relay times with selectivity coordination at electrical faults, communication data points, and time-stamp sources.
As smart grids advance rapidly, they are evolving along two primary trajectories: (1) digitalization through the incorporation of Internet of Things (IoT) technology and intelligent control, and (2) decentralization by leveraging small-scale distributed energy sources for control. However, these developments also introduce complexities in the functioning, management, and control of smart grids. Consequently, there is an urgent need for a transparent, secure, robust, transactive, and scalable framework for all stakeholders and operators. Blockchain technology emerges as a promising solution for this new smart grid paradigm, providing a range of features, including a distributed ledger, immutability, consensus, security, and automation. This article highlights the challenges in smart grid management, control, and operations, and discusses the potential of blockchain-based solutions to address these issues. It demonstrates that the adoption of blockchain can significantly enhance the overall functioning of the infrastructure by establishing a decentralized architecture without central governance.
In recent decades, there has been a growing global focus on solar power as a renewable energy source (RES) to supply local energy demands and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) system provides a small-scale utilization of solar energy on the roofs of apartment buildings. Investment in this system and its profitability depends on several factors, including geographic conditions, electricity price, and local load profiles. However, in Finland, the maritime and continental climates and electrically heated residential buildings present unique challenges to the investment and utilization of rooftop PV systems. Common solutions to incentivize the investment of grid-connected PV in apartments are battery energy storage systems (BESSs), demand side management (DSM), and power-to-x (P2X) approaches. Nevertheless, the value of these solutions is limited in Finland due to the seasonal variation of solar PV generation and customers’ energy consumption. This paper presents a novel and practical control and hedging mechanism to encourage investments in rooftop solar PV-BESS systems by investing in cryptocurrency mining devices (CMDs) as dispatchable and flexible loads, which facilitate the use of excess renewable energy for producing cryptocurrency, such as bitcoin (BTC). This mechanism can optimally switch the output of excessive renewable energy between exporting to the main grid and mining cryptocurrency. The proposed mechanism is studied using a dataset obtained from a residential apartment building in Helsinki, Finland, and its effectiveness is demonstrated through several practical scenarios. The results of a case study employed in this work demonstrate that the proposed hedging mechanism can provide sufficient encouragement for investors to invest in a PV system, with a return on investment equal to 57.7%. This mechanism also reduces the annual cost of residential apartments by 68.1%.
Muhammad Hasan Danish Khan, Junaid Imtiaz, Muhammad Najam-ul-Islam
Energy markets are being transformed rapidly all over the world due to an increased integration of renewable energy sources. Blockchain technology is emerging as a prime contender, as it can provide a secure and efficient transactional platform for such markets. In a typical microgrid energy market, the consumers and prosumers belonging to the microgrid have the ability to trade energy in a peer-to-peer fashion. However, the existing energy markets suffer from multiple issues security and privacy issues. To handle the aforementioned issues, this research work proposes a blockchain based secure Decentralized Transaction System (DTS) for energy trading in microgrids. The proposed system comprises of a secure market model that facilitates energy trade between energy users. A simplistic energy exchange mechanism has been formulated that ensures data integrity and privacy of the participating energy users. A prosumer centric consensus mechanism has been employed to incentivize the prosumers and ensure the availability of energy in the microgrid at all times. An efficient and dynamic pricing mechanism has been used to reduce the supply and demand disparity. A comprehensive trust model based on commitments has been adopted for ensuring the reliability of the participating energy user. Additionally, a hardware based access control mechanism has been utilized to make the proposed DTS a physical and cyber secure system. Other than this, a framework of smart contracts has been deployed to provide a comprehensive solution that ensures privacy, security, anonymity, auditability and confidentiality of the generated energy information. To demonstrate its practicality, the system has been implemented on Ethereum platform. The proposed DTS is validated using realistic data with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) environment of Goerli Test Network.