Shengnan Zhang, Jiaxing Xuan, Zitong Lyu, Yuchen Fu
Disadvantages like cumbersome verification and data centralization are involved in the application and transaction process of Renewable Energy Certificates in China. We realize that blockchain technology has been successfully applied in many fields with its features of decentralization, immutability, and traceability. As a result, we in this article aim to introduce blockchain into the current Renewable Energy Certificates trading system to solve the above problems. Firstly, this article gives an overview of blockchain technology, including its architecture and technical advantages. Secondly, it describes China's Renewable Energy Certificates transaction process and analyzes the potential challenges faced by it. Finally, it proposes a Renewable Energy Certificates trading system based on blockchain technology and analyzes its operation mode, advantages, and potential problems.
H. Ariza, Juan Carlos Martínez-Santos, Esteban Payares, M.F. Medina · 6 authors
Large penetration of renewable distributed energy resources, as well as the effective integration of storage systems and electric vehicles, are some of the required strategies to reduce the impact of the energy sector on greenhouse gas emissions. Microgrids offer an efficient platform to facilitate the integration of these systems, however, the increased complexity this strategy comes with, requires the use of sophisticated, reliable, and secure monitoring and control systems. The outbreak of cryptocurrency technologies has drawn particular attention, especially, the underlying Blockchain technology. The decentralized structure of this technology enables implementing control strategies, parameters monitoring, and business processes in microgrids. The aim of this work is to present the development of a framework to monitor operational parameters from an islanded microgrid. To build the Blockchain network, the Hyperledger-Fabric development platform was used. To simulate the behavior of the microgrid, an object-oriented open-source library using the Modelica modeling language was used to model a DC microgrid. The performance of the architecture was evaluated through operational parameters such as the difficulty and the number of nodes. Results suggest that changes in these factors can affect significantly the transaction time. The proposed architecture can be used as a basis to study Blockchain communication effects in smart grids and their development.
In the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), peer-to-peer (P2P) distributed energy (DE) transactions exist in various scenarios. This paper attempts to improve the intelligence, real-timeliness, and security of the direct transaction between DE generation companies (DEGCs) and users, and reduce the default frequency of distributed power (DP) transactions. For these purposes, a P2P DE transaction model for the IIoT was proposed based on blockchain. Firstly, a blockchain-based distributed energy peer-to-peer transaction framework is constructed, which is more suitable for generalized energy transactions based on typical transaction scenarios of the IIoT. Using credit value evaluation and smart contracts to ensure the transparency, openness, and non-tampering of credit scores. On this basis, the energy currency reward mechanism is used to promote the trustworthiness of transaction nodes and maintain transaction security. Finally, the P2P direct transaction based on credit value was designed to improve the transaction efficiency and security. Through case analysis, the DE transaction model for the IIoT, which is based on the credit value of the blockchain, supports fast and frequent energy transactions, as it overcomes the confirmation delays of energy blockchain transactions. The proposed model improves the efficiency of DE transactions in the IIoT, effectively suppresses default frequency, and maintains the order of DE market in the IIoT.
Oct 8, 2020·Proceedings of the Twenty-First International Symposium on Theory, Algorithmic Foundations, and Protocol Design for Mobile Networks and Mobile Computing
Vikas Hassija, Vatsal Gupta, Vinay Chamola, Salil S. Kanhare
The rapidly increasing mobile traffic across the globe has proliferated the deployment of cellular base stations, which has, in turn, led to an increase in the power consumption and carbon footprint of the telecommunications industry. In recent times, solar-powered base stations (SPBSs) have gained much popularity in the telecom sector due to their ability to make operations more sustainable. However, some potential energy benefits rendered by the SPBSs have not yet been realized. In areas with dense base station deployment or low mobile traffic, SPBSs store surplus energy, which, in most instances, gets lost due to limited charge storage capacity of the batteries. To limit the wastage of energy, an appropriate mechanism enabling the utilization of excess energy produced by these base stations can be adopted. To this end, we model a Base Station-to-Grid (BS2G) network in which the grid can utilize surplus energy spared by the SPBSs. To overcome challenges in regards to scalability, robustness, and cost-optimization, we propose using the blockchain technology to create the BS2G network. Blockchain is a distributed ledger designed to record transactions in a transparent, lightweight, and tamper-proof manner. To make energy trade between base stations and the grid cost-effective, a game-theoretical approach has also been adopted in this paper. The proposed model simplifies the process of energy trading while also making it cost-optimal.
The traditional natural gas Internet-of-Things (IoT) system has many problems, such as centralized management of resources, noncirculation of data between stations, insecurity of transaction information or account books, and lack of contract consensus. In order to ensure data security and reliable transaction, this article introduces artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technology and constructs an AI-enabled and blockchain-powered natural gas IoT system in a smart city. In this article, the natural gas output prediction model based on temporal pattern attention-based LSTMs (TPA-LSTMs) is used to enable the system to sense the change of natural gas deliverability. In addition, we establish a blockchain-based secure natural gas transaction scheme, which dynamically matches the purchase contract and sale contract to maximize the interests of the buyer and the seller and obtain a transaction contract. The experimental results show that our model can predict the output value of natural gas in real time and select the appropriate transaction matching scheme according to the dynamic demand for sales.
Transactive energy plays a key role in the operation and energy management of future power systems. However, the conventional operational mechanism, which follows a centralized design, is often less secure, vulnerable to malicious behaviors, and suffers from privacy leakage. In this work, we introduce blockchain technology in transactive energy to address these challenges. Specifically, we develop a novel blockchain-based transactive energy framework for prosumers and design a decentralized energy trading algorithm that matches the operation of the underlying blockchain system. We prove that the trading algorithm improves the individual benefit and guarantees the socially optimal performance, and thus incentivizes prosumers to join the transactive energy platform. Moreover, we evaluate the feasibility of the transactive energy platform throughout the implementation of a small-scale network of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and extensive simulations using real-world data. Our results show that this blockchain-based transactive energy platform is feasible in practice, and the decentralized trading algorithm reduces the user's individual cost by up to 77% and lowers the overall cost by 24%.
This paper presents a private blockchain environment designed to optimize energy exchanges and reach consensus between different users on a university grid. The objectives of this work are to present a fully distributed energy sharing framework that takes into account the individual preferences of the users, and to give guidelines for development of blockchain applications relative to energy sharing. A private Ethereum blockchain with a Proof-of-Authority mechanism is deployed on a local energy community. A smart contract written in Solidity is used to perform distributed optimization under a global power constraint. Python client are used to enable direct interactions between users and the smart contract. The simulations performed on real data show that consensus is obtained after a few iterations, and thus prove that our framework has the potential to be practically used in real situations.
Jacob G. Monroe, Paula Hansen, Matthew Sorell, Emily Zechman Berglund
The transfer of market power in electric generation from utilities to end-users spurred by the diffusion of distributed energy resources necessitates a new system of settlement in the electricity business that can better manage generation assets at the grid-edge. A new concept in facilitating distributed generation is peer-to-peer energy trading, where households exchange excess power with neighbors at a price they set themselves. However, little is known about the effects of peer-to-peer energy trading on the sociotechnical dynamics of electric power systems. Further, given the novelty of the concept, there are knowledge gaps regarding the impact of alternative electricity market structures and individual decision strategies on neighborhood exchanges and market outcomes. This study develops an empirical agent-based modeling (ABM) framework to simulate peer-to-peer electricity trades in a decentralized residential energy market. The framework is applied for a case study in Perth, Western Australia, where a blockchain-enabled energy trading platform was trialed among 18 households, which acted as prosumers or consumers. The ABM is applied for a set of alternative electricity market structures. Results assess the impact of solar generation forecasting approaches, battery energy storage, and ratio of prosumers to consumers on the dynamics of peer-to-peer energy trading systems. Designing an efficient, equitable, and sustainable future energy system hinges on the recognition of trade-offs on and across, social, technological, economic, and environmental levels. Results demonstrate that the ABM can be applied to manage emerging uncertainties by facilitating the testing and development of management strategies.
Chenxi Jia, Hongyuan Ding, Chuanjin Zhang, Xi Zhang
In modern buildings, the intelligent building energy management system (IBEMS) faces several problems with its centralized architecture: the difficulty in the networking between end devices, the lack of flexibility, and the limited sharing of underlying information. To overcome these problems, this paper probes into the framework of the wireless sensor network (WSN), and designed a network model of the IBEMS. Next, the security of blockchain technology was fully examined, and a dynamic key management strategy was proposed based on the blockchain for the IBEMS. The feasibility of the proposed plan was verified through experiments. The experimental results show that the proposed plan reduces the data storage time and space of each sensor, and optimizes the control of the IBEMS. The research results provide a reference for setting up a safe and reliable IBEMS based on spatial distribution, and help promote blockchain technology in other scenarios of the UPIoT.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to design a sustainable development platform for water and energy peer-to-peer trading that is financially and economically feasible. Water and other resources are becoming scarcer every day, and developing countries are the neediest for an immediate intervention. Water, as a national need, is considered to be one of the most precious commodities, but it is also one of the main causes for conflicts in the 21st century. Rainwater harvesting and peer-to-peer trading of the harvested water is one of the most convenient, scalable and sustainable solutions but faces organization challenges such as the absence of suitable business models motivating normal users to sell their generated resources (such as water and energy), currency and financial settlement complexities and single utility markets. Design/methodology/approach This paper proposes a multi-utility trading platform based on the blockchain technology which can address the challenges faced by peer-to-peer trading for resources such as energy and water. Findings This paper presents a peer-to-peer multi-utility trading platform that solves the shortcomings of existing utility frameworks reported in the current literature. Originality/value This proposed platform meets the needs of developing countries as well as rural areas of developed countries. The open nature of the proposed design makes it suitable for adoption and use by various stakeholders.
Ashot Mnatsakanyan, Hamad Albeshr, Ali Al Marzooqi, Endika Bilbao
The penetration of distributed energy resources keeps increasing in most of electricity markets, becoming an essential part of smart grid systems. This, along with advancements in power converters and control systems, led to formation of various aggregation mechanisms, such as Virtual Power Plants (VPP) or demand response (DR) aggregators, enabling participation of small and medium scale distributed energy resources (DER) in electricity markets. Such mechanisms typically entail control of DER assets at specified time periods to provide grid services such as peak shaving. However, the transparency of operations when controlling the aggregated DERs is a risk from the asset owner's perspective and may lead to various types of disputes with the aggregator or operator. In order to tackle this issue, we have developed a blockchain-based mechanism that handles all transactions within a VPP on a distributed data ledger, enabling full transparency of the system. The blockchain system is integrated with an actual VPP setup with a total aggregated size of 1.8MWs composed of renewables, energy storage systems and controllable loads. The proposed mechanism contributes to grid digitalization and enables new applications in power systems, incentivizing larger penetration of DERs and their participation in ancillary services.
Technological advancements are leading to new frontiers in power grid operation, monitoring, control, and commercialization. The conventional notion of unidirectional power flow from centralized generating stations to probable consumers through unidirectional distribution systems is now changing with the active participation of consumers as prosumers and distributed energy resources. In order to maintain security, privacy and avoid double-spending while performing energy trading through online mechanisms a strong and reliable mode of energy transaction platform is required. Blockchain technology has proven as a stable and reliable platform for maintaining the distributed ledger that could be utilized for hosting and managing the energy transactions of the grid. In this paper, a blockchain-based energy trading mechanism in presence of internet of things has been proposed and the impact of employing blockchain technology on the aggregated load profile and available distribution capability of the ADN has been performed in Modified IEEE 123 bus distribution feeder.
Under the broader aegis of smart grid, the use of Distributed Ledger Technology to promote privacy, trust and security in peer-to-peer (P2P) energy sharing is gaining attention globally. However, implementation is limited to microgrid or neighbourhood level due to the challenges of scalability and performance associated with increase in number of prosumers. Therefore, the inclusion of stakeholders- producers to prosumers-require a scalable solution for advancing the information and energy exchange objectives. To this end, we propose CEnTrA, an application of sharding in blockchain to develop a novel hierarchical model capable of processing P2P energy sharing transactions at city-scale. CEnTrA is based on ChainSpace and takes advantage of the structure of the electrical grid to create a scalable network. The hierarchical model allows the use of customized transaction policies at different levels and locations of the grid. The results show that sharding increases transaction throughput by upto 59.52% in comparison to no sharding. Additionally, a location-based sharding model is presented that improves performance of multi-input transactions by 39.57% for 250 inputs in comparison to random sharding.
Jing Lu, Shihong Wu, Hanlei Cheng, Bin Song · 5 authors
Abstract In this article, aimed at the future “let go” electricity market, smart contracts for grid enterprises doing electricity transactions and charge settlements based on blockchain technology, as well as the trading model using the smart contracts, are proposed. Then the key technological difficulties are analyzed, and the solutions are given. The main goal of our research is to help developing the infrastructure for electricity market members, and match their bilateral trading. By running a smart contract instance in a peer‐to‐peer network composed by 4000 nodes, experiments show that the success rate is 99.38% and the average time consumption for each transaction is 16 seconds. If our method is applied, we can reduce the trust cost of the electric electricity market, and improve the efficiency of the electricity transaction and charge settlement.
The trade of electricity on the free market is realized through energy exchanges. This article describes the Electricity Trading Web Platform, which stores information about Ethereum Blockchain transactions and the rest of the information in a relational database.
Mohamed Kareem AlAshery, Zhehan Yi, Di Shi, Xiao Lu · 7 authors
The concept of peer-to-peer (P2P) trading, or transactive energy (TE), is gaining momentum as a future grid restructure. It has the potentials to utilize distributed energy resources (DERs), proactive demand side management (DSM), and the infusion in information and communication technologies (e.g., blockchain and Internet of Things (IoT)) for promoting the technical and economic efficiency of the system in its entirety. An efficient market framework is vital for the successful and sustainable implementation of such a concept. This article proposes a P2P energy trading framework enabled by blockchain. It consolidates bilateral contracts, an electronic-commerce platform, a double-auction Vickrey-Clarke-Groves (VCG) mechanism, and trading functionalities with the main grid. Through these multi-layer mechanisms, various trading preferences and attributes of electricity generation and/or consumption are accommodated. Meanwhile, the VCG mechanism eliminates any potential for market power exercise via incentivizing truthful bidding of participants. Different remedies are proposed to overcome the drawback of VCG, i.e., the lack of balanced-budget property. Accordingly, the proposed trading framework is described as multi-settlement and quasi-ideal. Case studies are conducted to analyze and evaluate the proposed trading framework and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed remedies in handling probable market deficiencies.
João Mello, José Villar, Ricardo J. Bessa, Mário Lopes · 6 authors
This paper proposes a Local Energy Market using a P2P blockchain-powered marketplace where agents bilaterally trade energy after the consumption and production period, and not before, as usual in electricity market design. The EU and MIBEL regulatory framework for Renewable Energy Communities potentially creates space for such a market, but some improvements in the settlement procedures and agent’s participation must be met.