Blockchain Papers

Abdul Motin Howlader, Staci Sadoyama, Leon Roose, Saeed Sepasi

No abstract is available for this record.

George Kyriakarakos, G. Papadakis

Currently, 1.06 billion people still do not have access to electricity, with the majority living in rural areas around the world[...]

Eung Seon Kang, Seung Jae Pee, Jae Song, Ju Wook Jang

The MicroGrid., as the need for renewable energy emerges, are becoming essential, renewable energy trading platforms are being developed and established in the microgrid. With the proliferation of technologies such as Smart home based of Internet of Things, interconnected networks, and Blockchain, microgrid has introduced a variety of applications and innovative solutions for efficient system maintenance. This paper, in a blockchain-based smart home, it is impossible to forge data called transaction generated by using blockchain. With this unforgeable transactions, home miner that centrally processes all the transactions generated in smart home know information about energy. Based on this information, we proposes renewable energy trading platform using ethereum's smart contract to ensure secure energy trading run automatically without the third party intervention in a microgrid.

Taneli Hukkinen

This thesis explains the working of a previously undocumented blockchain application developed for the energy sector. The application enables distributed market coordination for small-scale decentralized energy systems. An Ethereum smart contract is employed as a core component of the application, facilitating a marketplace for transacting electrical energy. A design science research methodology was applied to the application in an attempt to further develop it. The problem of high fees in the energy marketplace was identified, resulting from the smart contract's inefficient use of Ethereum gas. Two particular sources of inefficiency were identified, and solutions for fixing these inefficiencies were designed and implemented. Savings in transaction fees were created by replacing a function of the smart contract with off blockchain communication, and by editing the fund withdrawal mechanism of the smart contract so that it requires users to create fewer blockchain transactions. As a result, the smart contract's gas consumption was reduced by up to 11% in a certain use case. The reduction in gas consumption was not sufficient to make the deployment and use of the application economically feasible on the canonical public Ethereum blockchain. A Plasma child chain or a dedicated Ethereum blockchain were suggested as potentially more feasible deployment environments for the application. It was noted that the application relies on centralized components, and it is debatable whether its current blockchain-based implementation is justifiable.

Armin Ghasem Azar, Mohsen Afsharchi, Mansoor Davoodi, Bahram Sadeghi Bigham

No abstract is available for this record.

Lee Won Park, Sanghoon Lee, Hangbae Chang

In this paper, we aim to provide a power trade system that will promote a sustainable electrical energy transaction ecosystem between prosumers and consumers of smart homes. We suggest a blockchain-based peer-to-peer (P2P) energy transaction platform be implemented to enable efficient electrical energy transaction between prosumers. We suggest the platform be built on the blockchain, as this technology allows a decentralized and distributed trading system, and allows a more transparent, trustworthy and secure P2P trading environment. We believe that such characteristics of the blockchain are necessary in electrical energy transactions within the smart home environment because the smart home aims to enhance user comfort and security, along with energy conservation and cost-savings. First, we classify the two different types of P2P trade to identify which will best benefit from the use of the suggested blockchain-based P2P energy-transaction platform. Within the two types of P2P trade, that we classify (pure P2P trade and hybrid P2P trade), the hybrid P2P trade will benefit more from a blockchain-based P2P energy-transaction platform. In the blockchain-based P2P energy-transaction platform, a smart contract is embedded in the blockchain and called an energy tag. The energy tag will set conditions for making every future energy transaction more cost-efficient while maintaining the most ideal and high-quality energy selection. With the blockchain-based energy tag in the energy-transaction process, multiple energy resources and home appliances will be democratically connected in order to provide users with high-quality, low-cost energy at all times and locations. In this paper, we provide simulation results that compare the unit price of electrical energy on the suggested platform to the unit price of electrical energy set by currently existing conventional power-generation companies. Additionally, we present simulation results that calculate how long initial investments to create a smart home environment that enables P2P energy transactions will take to be paid back. Based on simulation results, we believe that, in the long run, the suggested blockchain-based P2P energy-transaction platform will create a sustainable energy-transaction environment between consumers and prosumers, and the expanding ecosystem will enable the development of a trusted, sustainable, secure and energy-efficient energy transaction environment.

Hamidreza Arasteh, Vahid Vahidinasab, Mohammad Sadegh Sepasian, Jamshid Aghaei

The incorporation of the reconfiguration into the expansion planning of smart distribution networks is addressed in this paper, in which the potential of distributed energy resources and demand response (DR) are modeled. The system of systems (SoS) architecture is employed to model the strategy of a distribution company (DISCO), a private investor (PI), and a DR provider (DRP). The SoS is an efficient modeling architecture to model the behavior of independent and autonomous systems with distinct objective functions who are able to share some data and work together. The aim of the DISCO is to upgrade the system with the optimal cost and reliability, whereas the PI and DRP want to maximize their profit. The DISCO should try to persuade the PI to install DGs (Distributed generations) by offering the guaranteed purchasing prices. Furthermore, the DRP is a market player who can negotiate with the DISCO to sign a contract to sell the purchased DR capacities from the customers. The uncertainties of the DISCO problem is handled by using the chance-constraint method, but the PI and DRP use the conditional value at risk method to model their uncertainties. Finally, to solve the proposed model, the multiobjective optimization algorithm is employed.

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

The present paper considers some technical issues related to the “energy blockchain” paradigm applied to microgrids. In particular, what appears from the study is that the superposition of energy transactions in a microgrid creates a variation of the power losses in all the branches of the microgrid. Traditional power losses allocation in distribution systems takes into account only generators while, in this paper, a real-time attribution of power losses to each transaction involving one generator and one load node is done by defining some suitable indices. Besides, the presence of P-V nodes increases the level of reactive flows and provides a more complex technical perspective. For this reason, reactive power generation for voltage support at P-V nodes poses a further problem of reactive power flow exchange, which is worth of investigation in future works in order to define a possible way of remuneration. The experimental section of the paper considers a medium voltage microgrid and two different operational scenarios.

Majed A. Alotaibi, M.M.A. Salama

The deployment of smart grids has facilitated the integration of a variety of investor assets into power distribution systems, giving rise to the consequent necessity for positive and active interaction between those investors and local distribution companies (LDCs). This paper proposes a novel incentive-based distribution system expansion planning model that enables an LDC and distributed generation (DG) investors to work in a collaborative way for their mutual benefit. Using the proposed model, the LDC would establish a bus-wise incentive program based on long-term contracts, which would encourage DG investors to integrate their projects at specific system buses that would benefit both parties. The model guarantees that the LDC will incur minimum expansion and operation costs while concurrently ensuring the feasibility of DG investors' projects. To derive appropriate incentives for each project, the model enforces several economic metrics including internal rate of return, profit investment ratio, and discounted payback period. All investment plans committed to by the LDC and the DG investors for the full extent of the planning period are then coordinated accordingly. Several linearization approaches are applied to convert the proposed model into an MILP model. The intermittent nature of both system demand and wind- and PV-based DG output power is handled probabilistically, and a number of DG technologies are taken into account. Case study results have demonstrated the value of the proposed model.

Shen Wang, Ahmad F. Taha, Jianhui Wang

Crowdsourcing relies on people's contributions to meet product- or system-level objectives. Crowdsourcing-based methods have been implemented in various cyber-physical systems and realtime markets. This paper explores a framework for Crowdsourced Energy Systems (CES), where small-scale energy generation or energy trading is crowdsourced from distributed energy resources, electric vehicles, and shapable loads. The merits/pillars of energy crowdsourcing are discussed. Then, an operational model for CESs in distribution networks with different types of crowdsourcees is proposed. The model yields a market equilibrium depicting traditional and distributed generator and load setpoints. Given these setpoints, crowdsourcing incentives are designed to steer crowdsourcees to the equilibrium. As the number of crowdsourcees and energy trading transactions scales up, a secure energy trading platform is required. To that end, the presented framework is integrated with a lightweight Blockchain implementation and smart contracts. Numerical tests are provided to showcase the overall implementation.

Shoeib Heydari, Seyed Mohsen Mohammadi‐Hosseininejad, Hamed Mirsaeedi, Alireza Fereidunian · 5 authors

Utilities confront challenges to optimally plan and develop the distribution grids both for reducing their imposed costs and for satisfying the customers' electricity needs. In this paper, optimal allocation of automatic and manual sectionalizing switches as well as protective devices is performed in presence of load flexibilities. Control devices could improve the duration-based reliability indices, while protective devices could improve both duration-based and frequency-based reliability indices. In this paper, optimal incentives and penalties in the emergency demand response programs (EDRP) are determined based upon the customers' behaviors. The resulting optimization problem is then solved in 2 different scenarios: without load flexibility and incorporating EDRP. Finally, a standard reliability test system (RBTS4) is used to delineate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis is conducted to analyze the probability of customers' contribution in EDRP based upon the predetermined contracts.

Jianchao Hou, Haicheng Wang, Pingkuo Liu

Access to energy has increasingly been provided by the Chinese Government via new alternative energy sources known as renewables in recent years. Meanwhile, the development and use of environmentally friendly renewables gradually become the basic requirements for the sustainable development in the future society. The integration of blockchain technology with distributed photovoltaic (PV) energy may break the existing pattern where the production, transportation, distribution, and sales of energy are centralized. This paper first reviews the current overall situation of China's distributed PV and further analyzes the policy environment with respect to the development of distributed PV. On the basis of the analysis of the status quo, the paper then discusses the internalities (strengths and weaknesses) and the externalities (opportunities and threats) that have driven the development of China's distributed PV by illustrating the SWOT analysis. The data structure and characteristics of blockchain are analyzed to identify the application mode of blockchain technology in the distributed PV industry for the first time. Through our research, some conclusions and policy proposals are finally put forward to provide support to the formulation of related policy in the Chinese Government and industry association.

Claudia Pop, Tudor Cioara, Claudia Antal, Ionuț Anghel · 6 authors

In this paper, we investigate the use of decentralized blockchain mechanisms for delivering transparent, secure, reliable, and timely energy flexibility, under the form of adaptation of energy demand profiles of Distributed Energy Prosumers, to all the stakeholders involved in the flexibility markets (Distribution System Operators primarily, retailers, aggregators, etc.). In our approach, a blockchain based distributed ledger stores in a tamper proof manner the energy prosumption information collected from Internet of Things smart metering devices, while self-enforcing smart contracts programmatically define the expected energy flexibility at the level of each prosumer, the associated rewards or penalties, and the rules for balancing the energy demand with the energy production at grid level. Consensus based validation will be used for demand response programs validation and to activate the appropriate financial settlement for the flexibility providers. The approach was validated using a prototype implemented in an Ethereum platform using energy consumption and production traces of several buildings from literature data sets. The results show that our blockchain based distributed demand side management can be used for matching energy demand and production at smart grid level, the demand response signal being followed with high accuracy, while the amount of energy flexibility needed for convergence is reduced.

Seda Yanık, Anil Savaş Kiliç

No abstract is available for this record.

Magda Foti, Manolis Vavalis

This paper considers the design, the developed and the experimental evaluation, a blockchain based smart contract specifying the operating rules of a real time, uniform-price double auction energy market. Producers and consumers interact with this contract sending their offers and bids accordingly and the contract clears the market based on a double auction model. We propose four different approaches for implementing, through the Ethereum platform, both the P2P network as well as the smart contract. We systematically compare the above approaches on the basis of their decentralization nature, operating costs, computational costs, effectiveness, security, privacy and beyond. This comparison is achieved through large scale, real time simulations based on the GridLAB-D platform.

Fredrik Blom

The recent surge in renewable energy in the distribution grid could transform the generation side to be more variable, which potentially reduces power quality. This technical local challenge could be compensated by introducing a market solution, which could be realised in the form of a local energy market. Such markets requires a comprehensive infrastructure, where a centralised database solution traditionally have been used. However, blockchain technology have lately been presented as a possible preferable alternative. Blockchain is a decentralised communication platform, which logs all information in a structured and tamper-proof manner. This design makes it potentially suitable for operating a local energy market. However, there have not been performed a lot of research on the feasibility of developing local energy markets using blockchain technology. This will be therefore be the focus of this thesis, where a technical, economic and regulatory analysis are performed.\n\nThis thesis address this feasibility by developing a complex local energy market, deploying this on a test blockchain and analyse the results. The market consists of three unique trading mechanisms, where all explores the benefits of flexible loads. These trading mechanisms are then represented as blockchain applications, and simulated over a range of scenarios. The results illustrate a proof of concept, in addition to measure the usage of computational resources of operating blockchain applications.\n\nThe market simulation proved the technical feasibility of running several complex mechanisms in a blockchain environment, with an integrated payment solution. The observed computational resource consumption of the market revealed that a complex real time trading with 600 nodes and a trading frequency of 5 minutes requires a blockchain that can process 10.2 standard Ethereum transactions per second. This is considered to be possible for a modern blockchain protocol to process. The blockchain application design is also analysed, where it is identified how applications should be designed in order to lower the resulting computational consumption. In result, this thesis identifies blockchain technology as suited to operate a local energy market, without significant negative computational consequences. \n\nRegarding the economical feasibility, such a solution is considered to be more expensive than a database solution when it comes to development costs. However, a blockchain solution presents new market possibilities, which could result in a more efficient market, and hence be more economically beneficial. Regarding a regulatory analysis, the Norwegian energy market regulations presents several challenges towards decentralised local energy markets. However, the technology behind blockchain could provide arguments for changing these regulations, and hence make it possible for end users to participate actively in an energy market.

Chao Liu, Kok Keong Chai, Eng Tseng Lau, Yue Chen

No abstract is available for this record.

Mihail Mihaylov, Iván S. Razo-Zapata, Ann Nowé

No abstract is available for this record.

Johanna Ullrich, Nicholas Stifter, Aljosha Judmayer, Adrian Dabrowski · 5 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Perica Ilak, Ivan Rajšl, Lin Herenčić, Zlatko Zmijarević · 5 authors

Ongoing decentralization of electricity generation enables households to invest in small renewable energy sourced generation and to benefit from those investments by selling electricity and by selling their flexibility in demand and generation. Individual households including end consumers, producers and prosumers (acting as peers) could trade within community microgrids. The idea of decentralized electricity trading in a microgrid can be achieved with distributed ledger technology for peer-to-peer transactions. In this paper, this issue is examined and some ideas behind the concept discussed.

Valentina Nakić

Global energy consumption is expected to increase over the course of this century. Continued generation with the current energy mix is expected to further threaten climate tipping points. In order to meet emissions reduction targets, there has been a global push by governments to increase their share of renewable energy sources (RESs). Adoption has grown across scales, in addition to demand for new market models which allow for more flexible energy distribution. Liberalization of energy markets has expanded the number of actors involved, further contributing to the complexity of the issue. Adapting management systems and market models to better incorporate distributed energy sources poses a unique challenge to current energy system actors. \nInformation and communication technologies (ICT) are increasingly explored as a means of increasing efficiency and enabling more dynamic markets. Among these is distributed ledger technology (DLT), a decentralised, immutable, and cryptographically secured record of transactions which proponents claim can enable peer-to-peer energy trading. As of November 2018, DLT-enabled energy trading remains in an experimental phase. The question of governance has repeatedly been raised without clear strategic visions set for integration into future energy systems. \nThis research is a single case study which employed participatory foresight methods to understand how governance arrangements, actor networks, and innovation policies can be shaped over the first half of the 21st century in order to facilitate a sustainable energy system transformation enhanced by distributed ledger technology. The foresight methods used are visioning, driver mapping, scenario design, and policy-stress testing. Participants came from various levels, roles, and competencies within the energy sector. Several DLT application areas were identified, along with drivers of change, which were used to frame scenario narratives applied later in policy stress-testing. \nResults show that while DLT is not deemed a necessary part of a sustainable energy system transformation, an interactive mode of governance would be most conducive to a future in which it would have a role. Further, results suggest that there are ample opportunities for DLT and/or innovation policies to be co-opted by vested interests and locked into a non-transformative pathway. The importance of data-sharing in enabling sociotechnical change and, moreover, the legitimacy debate surrounding data collection methods is another key insight. This research enriches the robustness of contemporary knowledge on the arrangement and planning for transformative governance structures which can promote opportunities for sustainable development provided by novel technologies such as DLT, in addition to the role of foresight exercises in anticipatory governance.

Federico Lombardi, Leonardo Aniello, Stefano De Angelis, Andrea Margheri · 5 authors

One of the main trends in the evolution of smart grids is transactive energy, where distributed energy resources, e.g. smart meters, develop towards Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices enabling prosumers to trade energy directly among each other, without the need of involving any centralised third party. The expected advantages in terms of cost-effectiveness would be significant, indeed technical solutions are being investigated and large-scale deployment are planned by major utilities companies. However, introducing transactive energy in the smart grid entails new security threats, such as forging energy transactions. This paper introduces an infrastructure to support reliable and cost-effective transactive energy, based on blockchain and smart contracts, where functionalities are implemented as fully decentralised applications. Energy transactions are stored in the blockchain, whose high replication level ensures stronger guarantees against tampering. Energy auctions are carried out according to transparent rules implemented as smart contracts, hence visible to all involved actors. Threats deriving from known vulnerabilities of smart meters are mitigated by temporarily keeping out exposed prosumers and updating their devices as soon as security patches become available.

Jan Willem Veeningen, Nick Szirbik

No abstract is available for this record.

Naoyuki Yoshino, Tim Schloesser, Farhad Taghizadeh–Hesary

To achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs) as well as the Paris Agreement major investments in renewable energy (RE) production are necessary worldwide. In particular, decentralized, small-scale projects offer copious potential to create energy access as well as to contribute to an affordable, reliable and sustainable energy supply system. However, in developing countries such projects often face issues in finding funding. Direct private investment tools like the community-based hometown investment trust (HIT) fund address this issue and offer a way of financing for those projects. Technical developments in the sphere of distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) provide the opportunity to increase the fund's transparency and thus to improve its functioning. On that basis, this paper contributes to the literature in two ways: First, it delineates a concrete application of DLTs in the field of green financing, which offers the potential to increase social welfare. Second, the decision problem of investors is modeled, which illustrates through which channel the use of DLTs impacts the investors' behavior.