Ouns Bouachir, Moayad Aloqaily, Öznur Özkasap, Faizan Safdar Ali
Peer-to-Peer (P2P) energy trading platforms envisioned energy sectors to satisfy the increasing demand for energy. The vision of this paper is not only to trade energy but also to have part of it being shared. Therefore, this paper presentsFederatedGridswhich is a P2P energy trading and sharing platform inside and across microgrids. Energy sharing allows exchanging energy between the categories of consumers and prosumers in return for future benefits.FederatedGridsplatform uses blockchain and federated learning to enable autonomous activities while providing trust and privacy among all participants. Indeed, based on various smart contracts using federated learning,FederatedGridscalculates a prediction of the future energy production and demand allowing the system to autonomously switch between trading and sharing, and enabling the prosumers to make decisions related to their participation in the energy sharing process. Up to our knowledge, this work is the first attempt to create a hybrid energy trading and sharing platform, with the real sharing meaning, and that uses federated learning over the smart contract for energy demand prediction. The experimental results showed a 17.8% decrease in energy cost for consumers and a 76.4% decrease in load over utility grids.
Zhiwei Chen, Wenxin Guo, Ruifeng Zhao, Yang Liu · 5 authors
The purpose is to realize the decentralized microgrid economic dispatch, improve the information transparency and security of microgrid systems, and make the power grid move towards a clean, safe, efficient, and reliable development path. Deep learning optimization of microgrid economic dispatch and wireless power transmission based on blockchain technology are studied. First, the related theories and methods of microgrid systems, wireless power transmission, and deep learning optimization based on blockchain technology are introduced. Next, the microgrid economic dispatch is simulated and analyzed on a large scale. Finally, the comparison results between microgrid economic dispatch and common radio energy transmission technologies are analyzed. The results show that daily planning can better coordinate the state of distributed generation, energy storage system, and public connection. The operation results of the previous day correspond to the long‐term operation economy of the microgrid. The total operation cost of the microgrid is 4668 yuan/day, and the remaining power is maintained between 500 and 600 kW, which helps to prevent excessive battery discharge, prolong battery life, and reduce operation cost. The simulation results show that the total power imbalance of the microgrid can reduce the output fluctuation of controllable load shedding of distributed generation. When the load characteristics are not important, the output fluctuation of controllable distributed generation can be reduced. The proposed economic dispatch model can optimize the data security, information storage, and information release of the microgrid and has a certain guiding role for the development of the national power grid and power industry.
Liaqat Ali, M. Imran Azim, Jan Peters, Vivek Bhandari · 8 authors
This paper presents a collated case study on local energy market (LEM) in Australia, in which energy users take part frequently in peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading among themselves considering the agile presence of energy retailers and distribution utilities. To do so, first, an overview is provided in regard to LEM architecture, trading model with energy retailers, and the blockchain structure. Then, a new P2P trading mechanism is proposed in the LEM that enables both energy users, i.e., sellers and buyers, to reap financial benefits compared to the existing business-as-usual (BAU) model — where local power is exported and imported via feed-in-tariff (FiT) and time-of-use (ToU) rates. The proposed LEM framework also exploits residential battery energy storage systems (RBESSs); and the community battery energy storage systems (CBESSs) to balance local supply and demand appropriately and contributes towards lowering exports/imports from/to power grids by means of bilateral P2P transactions while the inclusion of responsible energy retailers are assured. Moreover, the margins of both energy retailers and distribution utilities are kept unchanged or increased to some extent by the proposed trading model to incorporate them in the LEM framework effectively. Finally, diverse case studies are provided to validate the proposed LEM mechanism with various studied models and demonstrate the superior performance in contrast with the present-day BAU model.
Most of the world’s countries are concerned with reducing harmful gas emissions. Some governments have made considerable attempts to address this problem. Saudi Arabia, for example, has taken significant steps to utilize renewable energy (RE) sources in addition to oil and gas. Consumers are encouraged to build small RE systems. These small grids will help people meet their daily electrical energy requirements. They can sell the excess to other customers. One of the major issues is managing the distribution and sale of RE. Blockchain-based peer-to-peer (P2P) networks can help overcome several obstacles to the implementation of a distributed RE management system (DREMS). However, several impediments may still stand in the way of its execution. Scalability and productivity are two of the most important considerations. The number of transactions made to the Blockchain network will increase in lockstep with the number of energy consumers. This will result in a significant lag in response. Understanding the renewable distributed energy system will aid in minimizing the effects of these roadblocks. Therefore, this research identifies the RE systems installation approaches, and how Blockchain technology can be utilized. It provides the solution requirements of any DREMS. Moreover, it proposes a new Blockchain-based framework for DREMS. And designs selective protocols of the proposed framework. The designed protocols are evaluated through a comparative analysis with the state of the art identified requirements.
Raifa Akkaoui, Alexandru Ştefanov, Peter Pálenský, Dick Epema
The concept of the internet of energy (IoE) emerged as an innovative paradigm to encompass all the complex and intertwined notions relevant to the transition of current smart grids towards more decarbonization, digitalization and decentralization. With a focus on the two last aspects, the amount of intelligent devices being connected in a scattered way to the existing power grid is ever-growing. Nevertheless, guaranteeing a cyber-secure and resilient control of these IoE components as well as a seamless and reliable delivery of electricity services, such as renewable energy exchange, electric vehicles charging, demand response, and so forth; might be the bottleneck of current power systems that are largely still functioning following a centralized approach. Thus, the future power grid would gradually incorporate a growing number of distributed-based control schemes to deal with this challenge. And many believe that blockchain could be a key-enabler in this transition, due to its consistent characteristics with multiple requirements of future power systems. In this paper, we provide an extensive state-of-the-art of blockchain-based additions to the IoE. Where, we first introduce various concepts related to blockchain and discuss the rationale behind its adoption in the context of IoE. Then, differently from the existing body of literature surveys, we do not only provide a taxonomy and evaluate a wide range of recent research outputs that integrated blockchain within modern power systems. But we also draw some valuable lessons learned for each studied category and discuss the intersection of blockchain with various emerging paradigms that have the potential of radically impacting the smart grid. In addition, we present some real-world industrial initiatives and ongoing projects built on top of blockchain, dedicated for offering diverse electricity services with a case study of a pilot project on energy trading in Amsterdam. Finally, we discuss the remaining challenges and worthwhile opportunities of deploying blockchain in this particular area, with a focus on the aspect of operational cyber-security.
Access to affordable, reliable and clean energy is an important sustainability goal of the United Nations. In areas where the public electricity grid is unreliable or unavailable, photovoltaic systems can be a solution. However, they are cost-intensive, mainly because of the energy storage systems. Mini-grids can be an answer for reducing upfront investment and overall system lifetime costs while increasing electricity availability. The mini-grid technology is mature, nevertheless, there are downsides when it comes to integrating existing solar systems of different manufacturers. The system topology is usually predefined and a central instance controls the mini-grid. Thus, the integration of existing power systems is difficult due to the communication constraints of these systems with the mini-grid controller. Including existing power systems into a decentralized mini-grid, can highly increase cost-efficiency. In a decentralized approach payments for the consumed energy between mini-grid actors are required. Accounting is, however, a complex administrative procedure, if the respective power systems are owned by different individuals and organizations. A transparent blockchain-based temper-proof approach can be a solution to automate metering and billing, allowing automatic payments between independent subsystem owners using smart contracts. In order to further optimize the smart mini-grid, an artificial intelligence learning algorithm for a dynamic electricity price needs to be developed. This smart and decentralized approach for building Mini-Grids is a novelty bringing solar systems one step closer to self-sufficiency. This paper describes how a smart mini-grid solution can be implemented using the Don Bosco Solar & Renewable Energy Center campus mini-grid in Tema, Ghana as a case study.
Peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading is emerging as an increasingly popular approach because prosumers are allowed to trade their energy directly without intermediaries. This decentralised trading structure could be matched with the blockchain function to provide a more robust cyber-physical system as the blockchain is able to ensure the integrity of the transaction data and the privacy of prosumers. Since the consensus protocol of the blockchain determines its usage, a proper blockchain type and an effective pricing scheme design are required to safeguard the energy trading and improve the social welfare of the microgrid. In addition, a stable power delivery system is significant as it supports the energy trading. Therefore, the control system of the microgrid should also be safeguarded against any cyber attacks such as false data injection (FDI). The cryptographic mechanism and distributed ledger recording function enable the blockchain to provide a comprehensive protection for both P2P energy trading and control system. With the support of the smart contracts, designing a proper pricing scheme for energy trading and ensuring the security of the distributed secondary control for the frequency of the microgrid is a challenging task.
Tariq Al-Abri, Ahmet Önen, Rashid Al Abri, Abdulnasir Hossen · 7 authors
With the rapid transformation of the energy sector towards modern power systems represented by smart grids (SGs), microgrids (MG), and distributed generation, blockchain (BC) technology has shown the capability for solving security, privacy, and reliability challenges that hinder progress. Currently, the energy structure is forming a decentralized system that prioritizes customer satisfaction. BC technology undertakes power network stockholders in a secure energy market, transparent transactions, and fair competition and offers promising energy solutions. This paper is a comprehensive review of energy applications using BC integration. Firstly, we introduce the drivers of BC leverage that make it a potentially important component of the power network. Following that, we provide background information on BC and its application in areas other than the energy sector. Subsequently, we discuss studies and sort potential energy applications from various recent papers and surveys that have already adopted BC technology in the energy sector. Then, we summarize the pricing infrastructure for applying BC in the energy sector and identify the requirements to build it. Finally, energy security and privacy challenges based on BC are highlighted, along with potential drawbacks and concerns related to the pricing infrastructure.
Md. Tayeen Khan, Md. Nozib Ud Dowla, Fardin Ahmed Niloy
The popularity of renewable energy is increasing due to its cost effectiveness. However, not everyone can generate and fulfill their energy demand, so energy trading is necessary. Current solutions are centralised and charged at a high fee for energy trading as they have a monopoly in the market. Energy trading requires the storage, verification, and sharing of data related to the trade while keeping records tamper-proof. Traditional database solutions are centralised and susceptible to data tempering. In our proposed scheme, we aim to solve those problems with the help of blockchain technology by storing data on blockchain and verifying transactions with the PoA consensus algorithm for faster processing. We tested our scheme against the Ethereum network and found that our scheme has a significant improvement in cost and processing. In the future, with the help of machine learning, pricing for each transaction can be optimised.
The advent of blockchain technology allows the raise of new business models for the electricity market, opening the way also to end-users and letting them offer regulation services to the power grid. Thanks to the characteristic of being distributed, the blockchain technology could be a solution to balancing problems caused by the penetration of renewable sources, implementing a platform for Demand-Response programs delivery. Demand-Response allows consumers to respond to market signals by increasing or reducing their energy consumption, contributing to greater flexibility and stability of the grid and to a more efficient use of infrastructures and energy resources. Currently, Demand-Response is carried out by controlling aggregates of loads, storage or generating units managed by centralized Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition systems such as SCADA. Regulatory changes and the increasing penetration of renewable sources distributed over the territory are turning the whole electricity system into a smart-grid. More recently and with reference to the end-users participation in regulation services, smartness is achieved through the so-called Internet of Things, which can be considered the modern equivalent of SCADA, but with the possibility of to being applied to distributed and diversified assets. For this reason, great efforts have been made to study the interoperability and coexistence between Internet of Things and blockchain, two emerging paradigms that are gaining popularity in the energy world. Limited or no contribution can instead be found in the literature on the integration of SCADA systems and blockchain. Indeed, in order to ensure an easier and faster widespread application of blockchain in the context of power systems, it is interesting to study its possible coexistence with legacy and more established industrial technologies such as OpenADR or SCADA. In Europe, the prevailing technology is the latter one. For this reason, in this paper, the coexistence of blockchain technology with SCADA systems is discussed. In particular, both Hyperledger Fabric blockchain and SCADA systems are considered together to assess the feasibility of aggregation of energy resources for Demand-Response, as well as the relevant measured data. The analysis is carried out by first presenting the two different paradigms: the centralized data acquisition in trusted environments and analysis via OpenADR and SCADA, and the global, distributed and secured ones with the blockchain. Then an architecture for the integration of SCADA and blockchain technology is proposed and the related challenges within the frame of a project for innovative technologies DR programs implementation are outlined.
The transformation of the global energy system must be accelerated to reach the 2015 Paris Agreement's goal of limiting the rise in average global temperatures to far below 2°C, ideally 1.5°C, by the end of the century relative to pre-industrial levels. Renewable electricity supply can materially contribute to the worldwide emission reductions needed in the energy sector. Therefore, renewable electricity funding needs to be scaled up significantly and urgently to advance the energy transformation. However, the core revenue risks associated with these assets, including financing, volume, and price risks, make it challenging for them to attract finance at favorable rates and advantageous terms from traditionally risk-averse investors. A number of traditional techniques have been employed to hedge these risks but these have many limitations including operational inefficiencies, redundancy of and dependency on many intermediaries, amongst others. Decentralized applications, combining blockchain and smart contracts, have recently been mooted in the financial industry to address similar challenges but in different contexts. On this basis, this study, for the first time, explores the potential of using blockchain smart contracts to address the limitations of traditional renewable electricity financing and hedging applications. This thesis evolves from conceptualization to application, using the financing and operating risks of renewable generators as case studies. First, a financing framework for blockchain smart contracts is structured to determine if such novel arrangements outperform traditional instruments for asset finance. Next, new smart contract hedging arrangements are developed and analytically valued for blockchain deployment through a use case for minimizing volume risk. Thereafter, smart contract hedging instruments are deployed on a blockchain network using an arrangement for minimizing price risk. Results from these case studies indicate that blockchain smart contracts could be effective in overcoming the limitations and hedging the underlying risk exposures of existing arrangements but present their own risks that need to be better assessed and understood before they can become mainstream in the industry. These newly introduced threats motivate the final part of this work which is the development of a taxonomy of the risks and challenges of embracing blockchain smart contracts in facilitating renewable electricity transactions. Results here indicate that cooperation and partnerships between developers and researchers, renewable energy companies, and governments are required to better understand blockchain smart contract risks in the sector. Overall, compared to traditional arrangements that have been in existence for more than two decades, blockchain smart contracts are only burgeoning and have a chance to address their associated risks and enable the renewable energy sector to develop further.
Ümit Cali, Muhammet Deveci, Shammya Shananda Saha, Ugur Halden · 5 authors
The modern power systems are evolving in parallel to the development of other technological trends such as decarbonization and digitalization. While the penetration of renewable energy resources is increasing within the national and regional energy mix, emerging digitalization technologies, such as artificial intelligence and blockchain technology are shaping modern power systems. Especially blockchain technology has a very high potential to disrupt the current and future energy sector landscape by enabling various use cases in this domain. This paper aims to prioritize different energy use cases where blockchain technology can actively be utilized to create additional value. This study proposes a Type-2 Neutrosophic Number (T2NN) based Evaluation based on Distance from Average Solution (EDAS) to evaluate and rank a set of existing use cases of an energy blockchain system. Testing and validation of the model is done through a comparison against one alternative T2NN based Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) model and an existing approach from literature. In addition, a sensitivity analysis is performed, revealing that changing criteria weightings do not affect the ranking order of the use cases of the energy blockchain system. Prioritizing the use cases can assist the companies, standardization bodies, and related government authorities to make better decisions for their operations, such as ranking the investment decisions.
Zahra Foroozandeh, Sérgio Ramos, João Soares, Zita Vale
In this paper, a collective residential building is considered in which the following points are taken into consideration: (i) a flexibility value of Contract Power (CP) is considered for each consumer; (ii) it is assumed a single CP for the entire building; (iii) an energy resource manager entity is considered to manage the energy resources in the residential building, such as Electric Vehicles (EVs), Photovoltaic (PV) generation system, and the Battery Energy Storage System (BESS). Taking into consideration the previous assumptions, the major goal of this work is to minimize the electricity consumption costs of the residential building by using a Multi-Objective Mixed-Binary Linear Programming (MOMBLP) formulation. The objective function of the MOMBLP model minimizes the electricity cost consumption of each apartment. Then, a Goal Programming (GP) strategy is applied to find the most appropriate solutions for the proposed MOMBLP model. Finally, the performance of the suggested model is evaluated by comparing the obtained results from a Single-Objective Mixed-Binary Linear Programming (SOMBLP) approach in which the whole building consumption cost is minimized. The results show that using the GP strategy a reduction of 7.5% in the total annual energy consumption is verified in comparison with SOMBLP. Moreover, the GP approach leads to fair benefit among building consumers, by finding a solution with less distance from the desired level.
As a decentralized database technology, blockchain is increasingly being applied to smart grids. This paper proposes a blockchain-based smart microgrid power transaction model. The model realizes the power dispatching between users and agents in the microgrid through two-way auctions and point-to-point transactions and optimizes energy allocation through market regulation. And based on the Ethereum private chain, it ensures the openness, transparency, safety, and reliability of transactions. The simulation results show that the open and reliable features of the blockchain improve the efficiency of power dispatching, and verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the model.
A Smart Community (SC) is an essential part of the Internet of Energy (IoE), which helps to integrate Electric Vehicles (EVs) and distributed renewable energy sources in a smart grid. As a result of the potential privacy and security challenges in the distributed energy system, it is becoming a great problem to optimally schedule EVs’ charging with different energy consumption patterns and perform reliable energy trading in the SC. In this paper, a blockchain‐based privacy‐preserving energy trading system for 5G‐deployed SC is proposed. The proposed system is divided into two components: EVs and residential prosumers. In this system, a reputation‐based distributed matching algorithm for EVs and a Reward‐based Starvation Free Energy Allocation Policy (RSFEAP) for residential homes are presented. A short‐term load forecasting model for EVs’ charging using multiple linear regression is proposed to plan and manage the intermittent charging behavior of EVs. In the proposed system, identity‐based encryption and homomorphic encryption techniques are integrated to protect the privacy of transactions and users, respectively. The performance of the proposed system for EVs’ component is evaluated using convergence duration, forecasting accuracy, and executional and transactional costs as performance metrics. For the residential prosumers’ component, the performance is evaluated using reward index, type of transactions, energy contributed, average convergence time, and the number of iterations as performance metrics. The simulation results for EVs’ charging forecasting gives an accuracy of 99.25%. For the EVs matching algorithm, the proposed privacy‐preserving algorithm converges faster than the bichromatic mutual nearest neighbor algorithm. For RSFEAP, the number of iterations for 50 prosumers is 8, which is smaller than the benchmark. Its convergence duration is also 10 times less than the benchmark scheme. Moreover, security and privacy analyses are presented. Finally, we carry out security vulnerability analysis of smart contracts to ensure that the proposed smart contracts are secure and bug‐free against the common vulnerabilities’ attacks. The results show that the smart contracts are secure against both internal and external attacks.
Morsy Nour, José Pablo Chaves Ávila, Álvaro Sánchez Miralles
Blockchain technology applications in the electricity sector are getting considerable attention from both academia and industry. It is expected that blockchain will play an important role in the transition to the smart grid. The blockchain applications in the electricity sector can be classified to optimizing existing processes like metering and billing or grid management and using blockchain for emerging applications such as creating new platforms for value exchange like peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading. This paper briefly introduces the fundamentals of blockchain technology, such as different types of blockchain networks and consensus mechanisms, in addition to introducing a few blockchain platforms that are widely used in current studies, projects, and startups or may have future potential in the electricity sector applications. The contribution of this paper is to provide a review of potential applications of blockchain in many electricity sector use cases, and they are categorized into eight categories such as P2P energy trading, wholesale markets, retail markets, metering and billing, trading of renewable energy certificates (RECs) and carbon credits, electric mobility, enhancement of power system cyber security, investments in renewable energy sources (RESs), and power system operation and management. Moreover, examples of research studies, pilot projects, industrial projects, startups, or companies investigating the blockchain capabilities at each potential application are introduced. Furthermore, the studies presented in each use case are compared to clarify and highlight the blockchain functions and involved actors. Finally, the paper discusses the challenges that blockchain technology is facing that obstruct large-scale adoption in different sectors and in the electricity sector specifically and potential solutions to these challenges that are being developed.