Blockchain Papers

Navid Bayati, Amin Hajizadeh, Mohsen Soltani

No abstract is available for this record.

M. Hadi Amini

No abstract is available for this record.

Mark Stefan, Paul Zehetbauer, Stephan Cejka, Franz Zeilinger · 5 authors

Energy communities will be an essential element of the future energy system. Especially renewable energy communities are gaining high attention in many European countries and their implementation, characteristics and use cases are elaborated in many research and development activities all around the world. Within the Austrian research project Blockchain Grid, a blockchain-based renewable energy community is implemented and field-tested in Heimschuh, Styria. It supports different technical applications like self-consumption optimisation and peer-to-peer energy trading for customers and a novel approach for grid capacity management supporting distribution system operators. These use cases have been implemented and validated in simulative studies showing promising potential for total energy costs for energy community members.

Mohamed Baza, Mostafa M. Fouda, Mahmoud Nabil, Adly Tag Eldien · 6 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Mohamed Lotfi, Cláudio Monteiro, Miadreza Shafie‐khah, João P. S. Catalào

No abstract is available for this record.

Alvise Baggio, Francesco Grimaccia

Our energy scenario is nowadays shaped by progressive electrification of energy final use. In this context, electricity networks are seeing a growing multitude of distributed assets entering from the edges of the grid and acquiring new ICT capabilities that were limited before to a restricted number of major players. Particularly, assets like Photovoltaic Inverter (PvI), Electric Vehicle (EV) chargers, wind turbines controllers, programmable loads, storage systems, and other Distributed Energy Resources (DER) are now able to communicate through different technologies and make conscious choices under human-decisions or even independently. This is leading to a decentralization of the system's view by increasing single actor independence. Notwithstanding, a problem arises when current centrally-managed electricity networks struggle to coordinate massive amounts of new figures and adapt to this new decentralized paradigm. Therefore, a decentralized coordination-and-control framework will ensure better integration of s and new figures as prosumers, while allowing higher exploitation of their potential compared to centrally managed systems. This article seeks in Blockchains the enabling technology for designing and supporting such a grid infrastructure. It develops a first framework to address this need by envisioning a grid-system based on the direct participation of nowadays-used embedded-energy-devices within a decentralized platform hosting specific coordination procedures. The platform was developed in an experimental research campaign performed at ABB Laboratories basing on embedded-devices currently designed as control-connectivity boards for smart-inverters. Therefore this article introduces the background theory and reasons behind this proposed system. The intent here is not to give all the specific details of the implementation, but introduce the supporting reason, high-level design, and required characteristic of the Blockchain-based platform for coordinating grid operations. Blockchain technology is seen here as the appropriate technology to enable the realization of a multi-actor energy-management system and enable distributed coordination in power grids.

Meizhu Chen, Xiangyan Tang, Jieren Cheng, Naixue Xiong · 6 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Le Su, Dinil Mon Divakaran, Sze Ling Yeo, Jiqiang Lu · 5 authors

With the rapid deployment of IoT devices, there is an increasing concern on the security and privacy of the devices. We are now witnessing newer and higher intensity attacks that exploit IoT devices. Although security-by-design is important and necessary, the effectiveness and sustainability of the buildin security defense may still be questionable. This has created new opportunities for third-party security service providers to enter the market. In this work, we leverage the distributed ledger technology (DLT) to propose a solution for distributing IoT security functions. We design the system architecture and describe the different types of operations to be executed. Our system also allows for reputation scoring that further adds credibility to the security functions distributed in the network.

Moon Kyoung Choi, Chan Yeob Yeun, Poong Hyun Seong

Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) are physically isolated from external networks and have different operational environments than conventional information technology (IT) systems. Accordingly, NPPs were regarded as safe from external cyber-attacks. However, it was later determined that isolated networks are not safe from cyber-attacks. Malicious data injection attacks on Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) deployed in the safety system of NPPs are critical to nuclear facilities, as they were in the Stuxnet attack. It is necessary to monitor the integrity of PLC data and protect the PLCs from cyber threats such as modification of deployed logic or setpoints. To address this problem, this paper proposes a novel system for monitoring data integrity of PLCs using blockchain technologies. Considering the NPP environment, we developed a private blockchain system to monitor the data integrity of PLCs. The new concept that is Proof of Monitoring (PoM) for data integrity of PLCs was proposed to overcome the limitation for applying the private blockchain to the cybersecurity of NPPs. Additionally, we developed an integrity monitoring system for the Reactor Protection System (RPS)-a safety system in NPPs-using the developed blockchain. It can detect cyber-attacks (such as false code injection attacks on PLCs) and monitor which PLC integrity has been compromised in real-time. A validation experiment using a false data injection attack on PLCs was performed on the developed system, and the results confirmed that the developed system successfully monitored the modification of data in the PLCs.

Ayşe Kübra Erenoğlu, İbrahim Şengör, Ozan Erdinç, João P. S. Catalào

No abstract is available for this record.

Evgenia Kapassa, Marinos Themistocleous, Jorge Rueda Quintanilla, Marios Touloupos · 5 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Dimitrios Sikeridis, Ali Bidram, Michael Devetsikiotis, Matthew J. Reno

Distribution and transmission protection systems are considered vital parts of modern smart grid ecosystems due to their ability to isolate faulted segments and preserve the operation of critical loads. Current protection schemes increasingly utilize cognitive methods to proactively modify their actions according to extreme power system changes. However, the effectiveness and robustness of these information-driven solutions rely entirely on the integrity, authenticity, and confidentiality of the data and control signals exchanged on the underlying relay communication networks. In this paper, we outline a scalable adaptive protection platform for distribution systems, and introduce a novel blockchain-based distributed network architecture to enhance data exchange security among the smart grid protection relays. The proposed mechanism utilizes a tiered blockchain architecture to counter the current technology limitations providing low latency with better scalability. The decentralized nature removes singular points of failure or contamination, enabling direct secure communication between smart grid relays. We also present a security analysis that demonstrates how the proposed framework prohibits any alterations on the blockchain ledger providing integrity and authenticity of the exchanged data (e.g., realtime measurements/relay settings). Finally, the performance of the proposed approach is evaluated through simulation on a blockchain benchmarking framework with the results demonstrating a promising solution for secure smart grid protection system communication.

Amin Hajizadeh, Seyed Mahdi Hakimi

No abstract is available for this record.

Ziming Liu, Dazhi Wang, Jiaxing Wang, Xinghua Wang · 5 authors

The rapid growth of renewable energy has increased the requirements of the smart grid for communication and processing capabilities. As an effective solution to collect and manage information, the wireless network can improve the efficiency of renewable energy management. But due to the wireless data transmission risk and centralized power trading, the smart grid employing wireless networks cannot guarantee the security of the electricity market and the high consumption of renewable energy. Recently, as an emerging data-sharing technology, the blockchain has attracted widespread attention and is considered to have the potential to solve above problems. In this paper, we propose a blockchain-enabled secure power trading mechanism for the smart grid employing wireless networks. The blockchain is introduced to record power data collected by the wireless network, and the smart contract can make reasonable trading decisions based on this. The dual-chain structure composed of local energy trading blockchain and renewable energy trading blockchain improves the efficiency of power trading and renewable energy consumption. To strengthen the stability of renewable energy producers and expand their scale, we also design a blockchain-enabled renewable energy incentive mechanism. Finally, the modified Southern California Edison 56 bus test feeder model validated our mechanism.

Federico Franzoni, Iván Abellán Álvarez, Vanesa Daza

Over the past twenty years, the number of devices connected to the Internet grew exponentially. Botnets benefited from this rise to increase their size and the magnitude of their attacks. However, they still have a weak point in their Command & Control (C&C) system, which is often based on centralized services or require a complex infrastructure to keep operating without being taken down by authorities. The recent spread of blockchain technologies may give botnets a powerful tool to make them very hard to disrupt. Recent research showed how it is possible to embed C&C messages in Bitcoin transactions, making them nearly impossible to block. Nevertheless, transactions have a cost and allow very limited amounts of data to be transmitted. Because of that, only messages from the botmaster to the bots are sent via Bitcoin, while bots are assumed to communicate through external channels. Furthermore, for the same reason, Bitcoin-based messages are sent in clear. In this paper we show how, using Bitcoin Testnet, it is possible to overcome these limitations and implement a cost-free, bidirectional, and encrypted C&C channel between the botmaster and the bots. We propose a communication protocol and analyze its viability in real life. Our results show that this approach would enable a botmaster to build a robust and hard-to-disrupt C&C system at virtually no cost, thus representing a realistic threat for which countermeasures should be devised.

Maria Luisa Di Silvestre, Pierluigi Gallo, Eleonora Riva Sanseverino, Giuseppe Sciumè · 5 authors

This article describes the possibility of using the blockchain technology for load and generation aggregation in a new distributed demand response (DR) service and customer remuneration system. The blockchain technology and the use of smart contracts for DR allow the creation of a distributed system, in which customers can communicate directly, in a transparent, secure, and traceable way, with the grid operator to provide their flexibility. In this article, the DR problem formulation takes into account several aspects, which are periodically executed. First, the blockchain records customers' energy consumption or production; then, the smart contract starts calculating the baseline and the potential support provided by each customer to fulfill the requested load adaptation. Customers' availability for generation and load profile modulation is also taken into account, as well as their privacy and an updated definition of the roles of grid and market operators in a new DR scenario supported by the blockchain technology. The blockchain used is Hyperledger Fabric, since it turned to be flexible for smart contract implementation while supporting multitenancy. Results show the possibility of successfully applying the blockchain technology to this particular topic, even considering privacy-preserving issues.

Zhishang Wang, Ogbodo Mark Ikechukwu, Huakun Huang, Chen Qiu · 6 authors

A Virtual Power Plant (VPP) is a network of distributed power generating units, flexible power consumers, and storage systems. A VPP balances the load on the grid by allocating the power generated by different linked units during periods of peak load. Demand-side energy equipment, such as Electric Vehicles (EVs) and mobile robots, can also balance the energy supply-demand when effectively deployed. However, fluctuation of the power generated by the various power units makes the supply power balance a challenging goal. Moreover, the communication security between a VPP aggregator and end facilities is critical and has not been carefully investigated. This paper proposes an AI-enabled, blockchain-based electric vehicle integration system, named AEBIS for power management in a smart grid platform. The system is based on an artificial neural-network and federated learning approaches for EV charge prediction, in which the EV fleet is employed as a consumer and as a supplier of electrical energy within a VPP platform. The evaluation results show that the proposed approach achieved high power consumption forecast with R2score of 0.938 in the conventional training scenario. When applying a federated learning approach, the accuracy decreased by only 1.7%. Therefore, with the accurate prediction of power consumption, the proposed system produces reliable and timely service to supply extra electricity from the vehicular network, decreasing the power fluctuation level. Also, the employment of AI-chip ensures a cost-efficient performance. Moreover, introducing blockchain technology in the system further achieves a secure and transparent service at the expense of an acceptable memory and latency cost.

Faizan Safdar Ali, Moayad Aloqaily, Omar Alfandi, Öznur Özkasap

Scalability and security problems of the centralized architecture models in cyberphysical systems have great potential to be solved by novel blockchain based distributed models.A decentralized energy trading system takes advantage of various sources and effectively coordinates the energy to ensure optimal utilization of the available resources. It achieves that goal by managing physical, social and business infrastructures using technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing and network systems. Addressing the importance of blockchain-enabled energy trading in the context of cyberphysical systems, this article provides a thorough overview of the P2P energy trading and the utilization of blockchain to enhance the efficiency and the overall performance including the degree of decentralization, scalability and the security of the systems. Three blockchain based energy trading models have been proposed to overcome the technical challenges and market barriers for better adoption of this disruptive technology.

Alexander J. M. Milne, Arnold Beckmann, Pardeep Kumar

Cyber Physical Trust Systems (CPTS) are Cyber Physical Systems and Internet of Things enriched with trust as an explicit, measurable, testable and verifiable system component. In this paper, we propose to use blockchain, a distributed ledger technology, as the trust enabling system component for CPTS. We propose two schemes for CPTSs driven by blockchain in relation to two typical network model cases. We show that our proposed approach achieves the security properties, such as device identification, authentication, integrity, and non-repudiation, and provides protection against popular attacks, such as replay and spoofing. We provide formal proofs of those properties using the Tamarin Prover tool. We describe results of a proof-of-concept which implements a CPTS driven by blockchain for physical asset management and present a performance analysis of our implementation. We identify use cases in which CPTSs driven by blockchain find applications.

Adedayo O. Aderibole, Aamna Aljarwan, Muhammad Habib ur Rehman, Hatem Zeineldin · 8 authors

Blockchain technology is showing a significant potential to disrupt a number of information technology domains. One of the especially interesting areas for blockchain applications is smart grid. A number of early papers have been published in this area, however, there is no systematic analysis of the impact of blockchain technology on decentralization of smart grids. In this paper, we analyze the standard NIST conceptual model of smart grid domains with respect to the three critical blockchain features: decentralization, trust and incentive. We integrate our findings in order to produce a fully decentralized blockchain-enabled smart grid considering NIST conceptual model. The results of this paper should help smart grid developers and researchers to obtain a conceptual reference of the overall applicability of blockchain technology in smart grid domains and sub-domains. In addition this research will help to identify and guide smart grid blockchain development and research initiatives.

Adamu Sani Yahaya, Nadeem Javaid, Muhammad Umar Javed, Muhammad Shafiq · 6 authors

The rapid deployment of Electric Vehicles (EVs) and the integration of renewable energy sources have ameliorated the existing power systems and contributed to the development of greener smart communities. However, load balancing problems, security threats, privacy leakage issues, etc., remain unresolved. Many blockchain-based approaches have been used in literature to solve the aforementioned challenges. However, they are not sufficient to obtain satisfactory results because of the inefficient energy management methods and time-intensiveness of the primitive cryptographic executions on the network devices. In this paper, an efficient and secure blockchain-based Energy Trading (ET) model is proposed. It leverages the contract theory, incentive mechanism, and a reputation system for information asymmetry scenario. In order to motivate the ET entities to trade energy locally and EVs to participate in smart energy management, the proposed incentive provisioning mechanism plays a vital role. Besides, a reputation system improves the reliability and efficiency of the system and discourages the blockchain nodes from acting maliciously. A novel consensus algorithm, i.e., Proof of Work based on Reputation (PoWR), is proposed to reduce transaction confirmation latency and block creation time. Moreover, a shortest route algorithm, i.e., the Dijkstra algorithm, is implemented in order to reduce the traveling distance and energy consumption of the EVs during ET. The performance of the proposed model is evaluated using peak to average ratio, social welfare, utility of local aggregator, etc., as performance metrics. Moreover, privacy and security analyses of the system are also presented.

Dongseung Kwon, Park Jong Dae

No abstract is available for this record.

Nafis Irtija, Fisayo Sangoleye, Eirini Eleni Tsiropoulou

The sheer growth of electricity demand and the rising number of electricity-hungry devices have highlighted and elevated the need of addressing the demand response management problem in residential smart grid systems. In this article, a novel contract-theoretic demand response management (DRM) framework in residential smart grid systems is introduced based on the principles of labor economics. The residential households produce and consume electricity, acting as dynamic prosumers. Initially, the prosumers' personal electricity generation and consumption characteristics are captured by introducing the concept of prosumers' types. Then, the prosumers' and the electricity market's profit is depicted in representative utility functions. Based on the labor economics principles, Contract Theory is adopted to design the interactions among the electricity market, which offers personalized rewards to the prosumers in order to buy electricity at an announced price, and the prosumers, who offer their “effort” by paying for the purchased electricity. The contract-theoretic DRM problem is formulated as a maximization problem of the electricity market's utility, while jointly guaranteeing the optimal satisfaction of the prosumers, under the scenarios of complete and incomplete information from the electricity market's perspective regarding knowing or not the prosumers' types, respectively. The corresponding optimization problems are solved following a convex optimization approach and the optimal contracts, i.e., rewards and efforts, are determined. Detailed numerical results obtained via modeling and simulation, highlight the key operation features and superiority of the proposed framework.

Tomasz Górski, Jakub Bednarski

No abstract is available for this record.