Distributed generation in the microgrid becomes increasingly significant, as it eliminates the power losses from long-distance electricity transmission lines. Distributed energy resources owners who can both produce and consume energy are defined as prosumers. To encourage the peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading between prosumers, blockchain as a thriving technology is utilized in the P2P network due to its transparency, security, and rapidity in executing transactions. Due to its decentralized quality, any intermediaries are eliminated so that transactions happen directly among traders. This article introduces a consortium blockchain trading model to support P2P energy trading, using a proof-of-stake protocol. The pre-selected miners are responsible for compensating the power losses in distribution lines by energy transactions. The specific process of the blockchain establishment, as well as the smart contract creation, are demonstrated. In addition, a type of crypto-currency named “elecoin” is created in the P2P market, which is published by the mining mechanism of the blockchain. Finally, a case study is introduced to realise the functions of the proposed blockchain model. Simulation results show the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed approach.
In small distribution systems, the "smart microgrid (μG)" concept is materialized for growing power savings and the allocation of energy distributed sources, and helping distribution system operators (DSOs) to choose the best investment strategies, to achieve a better grid operation, to increase the system efficiency, and to reduce adverse environmental impacts. In this context, the new specialized platforms for an advanced analysis and management of the energy market must be extended to the μG level, by reconsider of the actual grid infrastructures with "smart" μG clusters (μGC). The paper proposes a prosumers fair load sharing and surplus trading approach based on transactive energy concept in μG using an anonymous blockchain trading ledger-based clustering algorithm. In this way the trading process consider a new vision based on μGC for selection the trading peers' priority solved with Ward hierarchical algorithm. The developed method is tested on a real μG model to check its accuracy. Finally, an analysis regarding traded quantities and pecuniary peers' benefits is performed.
Vanh Khuyen Nguyen, Quan Z. Sheng, Adnan Mahmood, Wei Emma Zhang · 5 authors
The growth in distributed energy resources (DER) has produced positive impacts on energy grid systems. However, there are still significant challenges for deployment of DER systems. In this paper, we bring out the latest advancements in the domains of the internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence, and distributed ledger technology in tandem to create the next generation of a smart, distributed, and efficacious energy management and trading system in Australia. The system is comprised of cost-effective and easy-to-assimilate IoT devices, e.g., smart sockets and inverters connected to existing devices or renewable energy sources, to formulate a mobile-friendly platform that provides the energy consumers with intuitive analytics, programmable control, and real-time energy monitoring and trading so as to assist them in improving their energy-efficiency.
Shivam Saxena, Hany E. Z. Farag, Hjalmar Turesson, Henry Kim
Transactive energy systems (TES) are modern mechanisms in electric power systems that allow disparate control agents to utilise distributed generation units to engage in energy transactions and provide ancillary services to the grid. Although voltage regulation is a crucial ancillary grid service within active distribution networks (ADNs), previous work has not adequately explored how this service can be offered in terms of its incentivisation, contract auditability, and enforcement. Blockchain technology shows promise in being a key enabler of TES, allowing agents to engage in trustless, persistent transactions that are both enforceable and auditable. To that end, this study proposes a blockchain based TES that enables agents to receive incentives for providing voltage regulation services by (i) maintaining an auditable reputation rating for each agent that is increased proportionately with each mitigation of a voltage violation, (ii) utilising smart contracts to enforce the validity of each transaction and penalise reputation ratings in case of a mitigation failure, and (iii) automating the negotiation and bidding of agent services by implementing the contract net protocol as a smart contract. Experimental results on both simulated and real‐world ADNs are executed to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed system.
Gijs van Leeuwen, Tarek AlSkaif, Madeleine Gibescu, Wilfried van Sark
In this paper, an integrated blockchain-based energy management platform is proposed that optimizes energy flows in a microgrid whilst implementing a bilateral trading mechanism. Physical constraints in the microgrid are respected by formulating an Optimal Power Flow (OPF) problem, which is combined with a bilateral trading mechanism in a single optimization problem. The Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) is used to decompose the problem to enable distributed optimization and a smart contract is used as a virtual aggregator. This eliminates the need for a third-party coordinating entity. The smart contract fulfills several functions, including distribution of data to all participants and executing part of the ADMM algorithm. The model is run using actual data from a prosumer community in Amsterdam and several scenarios of the model are tested to evaluate the impact of combining physical constraints and trading on social welfare of the community and scheduling of energy flows. The scenario variants are trade-only, where only a trading mechanism is implemented, grid-only where only OPF optimization is implemented and a combined scenario where both are implemented. Results are compared with a baseline scenario. Simulation results show that import costs of the whole community are reduced by 34.9% as compared to a baseline scenario, and total energy import quantities are reduced by 15%. Total social welfare is found to be highest without a trading mechanism, however this platform is only viable when all costs are equally shared between all households. Furthermore, peak imports are reduced by over 50% in scenarios including grid constraints.
The optimal deployment of heterogeneous energy storage (HES), mainly consisting of electrical and thermal energy storage, is essential for increasing the holistic energy utilization efficiency of multienergy systems. Consequently, this article proposes a risk-averse method for HES deployment in a residential multienergy microgrid (RMEMG), considering the diverse uncertainties and multienergy demand-side management (DSM). Apart from the HES size and location planning, its optimal investment phase is also determined by maximizing the system equivalent daily profit (EDP) and minimizing the risk. To handle the system uncertainties from renewable energy sources, power demands, outdoor temperature, and residential hot water needs, the multistage adaptive stochastic optimization approach is utilized. Then, through the constraint linearization and stochastic scenario sampling, the original nonlinear deployment model is converted to a mixed-integer linear programming one and tested on an IEEE 33-bus distribution network based RMEMG. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by comparing it with the existing practices. The comparison results indicate that the proposed risk-averse deployment method can effectively increase the system EDP and more immune to the uncertainties. Besides, this method can be practically applied for the emerging RMEMGs, such as smart buildings, intelligent homes, etc., which get long-term DSM contracts.
Bogdan-Constantin Neagu, Ovidiu Ivanov, Gheorghe Grigoraş, Mihai Gavrilaș
A growing number of households benefit from the government subsidies to install renewable generation facilities such as PV panels, used to gain independence from the grid and provide cheap energy. In the Romanian electricity market, these prosumers can sell their generation surplus only at regulated prices, back to the grid. A way to increase the number of prosumers is to allow them to make higher profit by selling this surplus back into the local network. This would also be an advantage for the consumers, who could pay less for electricity exempt from network tariffs and benefitting from lower prices resulting from the competition between prosumers. One way of enabling this type of trade is to use peer-to-peer contracts traded in local markets, run at microgrid (μG) level. This paper presents a new trading platform based on smart peer-to-peer (P2P) contracts for prosumers energy surplus trading in a real local microgrid. Several trading scenarios are proposed, which give the possibility to perform trading based on participants’ locations, instantaneous active power demand, maximum daily energy demand and the principle of first come first served implemented in an anonymous blockchain trading ledger. The developed scheme is tested on a low-voltage (LV) microgrid model to check its feasibility of deployment in a real network. A comparative analysis between the proposed scenarios, regarding traded quatities and financial benefits is performed.
Miguel Gayo-Abeleira, Carlos Santos, Francisco J. Rodríguez, Pedro Martı́n · 6 authors
Since the advent of the microgrid (MG) concept, almost two decades ago, the energy sector has evolved from a centralized operational approach to a distributed generation paradigm challenged by the increasing number of distributed energy resources (DERs) mainly based on renewable energy. This has encouraged new business models and management strategies looking for a balance between energy generation and consumption, and promoting an efficient utilization of energy resources within MGs and minimizing costs for the market participants. In this context, this paper introduces an efficient management strategy, which is aimed at obtaining a fair division of costs billed by the utilities, without relying on a centralized utility or MG aggregator, through the design of a local event-based energy market within the MG. This event-driven MG energy market operates with blockchain (BC) technology based on smart contracts for electricity transactions to both guarantee veracity and immutability of the data and automate the transactions. The event-based energy market approach focuses on two of the design limitations of BC, namely the amount of information to be stored and the computational burden, which are significantly reduced while maintaining a high level of performance. Furthermore, the prosumer data is obtained by using IEC 61850 standard-based commands within the BC framework. By doing so, the system is compatible with any device irrespective of the manufacturer implementing the IEC 61850 standard. The advantages of this management approach are considerable for: MG participants, in terms of financial benefits; the MG itself, as it can operate more independently from the main grid; and the grid since the MG becomes less unpredictable due to the internal energy exchanges. The proposed strategy is validated on an experimental setup employing low-cost devices.
Muhammad Fahad Zia, Mohamed Benbouzid, Elhoussin Elbouchikhi, S. M. Muyeen · 6 authors
Prosumer concept and digitilization offer the exciting potential of microgrid transactive energy systems at distribution level for reducing transmission losses, decreasing electric infrastructure expenditure, improving reliability, enhancing local energy use, and minimizing customers' electricity bills. Distributed energy resources, demand response, distributed ledger technologies, and local energy markets are integral parts of transaction energy system for emergence of decentralized smart grid system. Hence, this paper discusses transactive energy concept and proposes seven functional layers architecture for designing transactive energy system. The proposed architecture is compared with practical case study of Brooklyn microgrid. Moreover, this paper reviews the existing architectures and explains the widely known distributed ledger technologies (blockchain, directed acyclic graph, hashgraph, holochain, and tempo) alongwith their advantages and challenges. The local energy market concept is presented and critically analyzed for energy trade within a transactive energy system. This paper also reviews the potential and challenges of peer-to-peer and community-based energy markets. Proposed architecture and analytical review of distributed ledger technologies and local energy markets pave the way for advanced research and industrialization of transactive energy systems.
Xiaolin Fu, Hong Wang, Zhi-Jie Wang, Zhong Shi · 6 authors
This paper aims to study the problems of surplus interaction, poor real-time performance, and excessive processing of information in the micro-grid scheduling and decision-making process. Firstly, the micro-grid dual-loop mobile topology structure is designed by using the method of block-chain and multi-agent fusion, realizing the real-time update of the decision-making body. Secondly, on the basis of optimizing the decision-making body, a two-layer model of intelligent decision-making under the decentralized mechanism is established. Aiming at the upper model, based on the theory of block-chain consensus mechanism, this paper proposes an improved evolutionary game algorithm. The maximum risk-benefit in the decision-making process is the objective function, which realizes the evaluation and optimization of decision tasks. For the lower layer model, based on the block-chain distributed ledger theory, this paper proposes an improved hybrid game reinforcement learning algorithm, with the maximum controllable load participation as the objective function, and realizes the optimal configuration of distributed energy in the micro-grid. This paper reveals the rules of group intelligent decision making in micro-grid under multi-task. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is verified by using Beijing Jin-feng Energy Internet Park data.
With the emerging technology for distributed generation and urge of improving quality of service of power supply for energy users, more and more Microgrids (MGs) are integrated into the distributed networks to serve the energy users. These Microgrids are gradually formulating a Multi-Microgrid System (MMGS, Multi-Microgrid System), which will play an important role for the future energy supply. Building a centralized control center not only increases the expense of investment, but also brings the issues of maintaining fairness among energy users. To address these problems, this paper proposes a peer-to-peer method for energy trading of MMGS, based on the idea of decentralized trading. An auction-based trading mechanism suitable for peer-to-peer energy trading is proposed first. For this mechanism, the MGs firstly declare their energy buying bids or selling quotations. Then, the market-clearing price is determined by using a unified weight clearing algorithm in a decentralized manner. By applying the edge technology of Blockchain, the implementation of the proposed peer-to-peer energy trading method, including the architecture, procedures, security check, etc., is also discussed. The proposed Blockchain-based energy trading platform can realize the decentralized and autonomous energy trading of MGs within an MMGS. A case study with an MMGS with 10 MG units is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Muhammad Fahad Zia, Elhoussin Elbouchikhi, Mohamed Benbouzid, Josep M. Guerrero
Prosumers concept has evolved with the technology advancements in renewable energy sources and intelligent responsive load devices. Digitalization paves the way for prosumers participation in energy market with the help of big data and distributed ledger technologies. Hence, power system is becoming more decentralized at distributed level, which consists of prosumers, consumers, and distributed energy resources-based microgrid systems. These microgrid participants require a transactive energy system for energy price signals-based smooth energy transactions among themselves. In this regard, this paper proposes a microgrid transactive energy system design and its functional layers. Blockchain-based transactive energy systems are also discussed. Finally, the peer-to-peer and community-based energy markets are presented.
The rapid development of distributed energy resources (DER) in the distribution grid calls for novel control and coordination solutions. Optimal management of DER will enable end-users to decrease their electricity costs and provide crucial services to grid operators. In this paper, a decentralized Optimal Power Flow (OPF) model is used to locally coordinate DER in distribution networks, while considering the network constraints, in a distributed, transparent and secure fashion. To achieve that, a consensus-based distributed optimization algorithm is developed using the general form Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM). To enable transparent and verifiable management of the network, the paper provides a comprehensive procedure for the implementation of the decentralized OPF on a private blockchain-smart contracts platform. The performance of the proposed framework is tested using real data from a case study in a residential neighborhood in Amsterdam with different varieties of DER. The implementation procedure on a blockchain-smart contracts platform may be adopted in other problems that require a smart contract to act as a virtual aggregator.
Distributed ledger technology has the potential to revolutionize the exchange of value in energy supply systems. Trust is central to the records in a ledger and the measurement of energy production or consumption must be dependable for confidence in an energy transaction. The case of measurement accuracy and error detection in a rural micro-grid is investigated for methods to enhance trust in energy exchanges. The suitability of state estimation as a technique is evaluated for mitigating inaccuracies in meter accuracy and therefore increasing trust. Application of the same principle for error detection, either from intentional meter tampering or faulty equipment is outlined. State estimation is found to provide a small improvement to the measurement of energy in a simple radial micro-grid, suggesting that with further work this method could benefit micro-grid operators and users seeking improvements to the accuracy and error detection.
Lin Herenčić, Perica Ilak, Ivan Rajšl, Zlatko Zmijarević · 7 authors
Current trends of decentralization, digitalization, decarbonization and democratization in the power sector enable new business models featuring active participation of the distributed energy resources and distributed storage systems. Moreover, individual and small market participants acting as peers want to trade electricity within local communities. Peer-to-peer decentralized electricity trading in microgrids using distributed ledger technology could be a solution for establishing local markets and accelerating the integration of distributed energy resources. In this paper, main technical, economic, social and regulatory challenges and threats for implementation of the peer-to-peer concept for electricity trading in microgrids are stated and discussed.
Boyu Wang, Morteza Dabbaghjamanesh, Abdollah Kavousi‐Fard, Shahab Mehraeen
Power grid resilience, reliability, and sustainability can be improved significantly by decomposing the large grids into networked microgrids (NMGs). However, the optimal energy management problem and preserving the security in NMGs are more complicated and challenging. This paper aims to propose a secured stochastic energy management framework for NMGs based on the modified blockchain approach, utilizing the directed acyclic graph (DAG). Using the decentralized and transparent blockchain technology will help to have higher security and lower risks within the network, thus eliminating the financial fraud and cutting down the total operational cost. In order to address the issues arising in the traditional blockchain models, mainly due to the storage and high complexities of hash address calculations, this paper proposes a new modified blockchain technology based on the DAG method. Also, a novel data restoration technique is developed to provide a way to restore the data with appropriate accuracy. The unscented transform (UT) approach is employed to model the uncertainties of forecast error in hourly load demand, solar power output, and wind turbines power output. Finally, the proposed model is tested on an NMG system with four MGs, including two residential MGs (as the noncrucial loads), a commercial MG (as the intermediate level loads), and a hospital MG (as the crucial loads).
Microgrid (MG) is an efficient platform to integrate distributed energy resources in distribution networks. The operation of MG is also expected to take advantage of emerging smart grid technologies to improve operation and robustness. Among these emerging technologies, blockchain technology provide a big potential to rule the energy transaction in an innovative way. In this paper, a physical architecture of the ecosystem with MGs is firstly presented. Moreover, as the main parts of the blockchain technology, the operation of distributed ledger and smart contracts are introduced in the transaction process. Considering dynamic pricing scheme in the process of energy transaction in the ecosystem, we model the energy transaction between MGs and distribution system operator (DSO) to decide the trading amount and price of the energy. The welfare maximization mathematical model is established accordingly, and the formulated dual problem will be used to find the shadow price of selling renewable energy to grid and real-time retailer price from DSO. Finally, with the deployment of distribution ledger, the energy transaction process can be fully recorded, and transaction execution can be achieved with the help of smart contracts. In light of the mentioned perspective, beside demonstrated benefit brought to both MGs and DSO, the energy transaction and management based on the blockchain will result in higher reliability and improved auditability in the ecosystem.
A fast, reliable and intelligent energy transaction pattern between energy suppliers and consumers is expected to be established within the scope of energy Internet (EI). Corresponding to the transaction principle, a smart contract-based energy trading strategy is proposed in this paper. This paper focuses on shifting the demand of residential users to reduce the energy cost. Then, a demand response model is given. Finally, the simulation result demonstrates the validity of the proposed demand response strategy.
Maria Luisa Di Silvestre, Pierluigi Gallo, Mariano Giuseppe Ippolito, Rossano Musca · 7 authors
The energy blockchain is a distributed Internet protocol for energy transactions between nodes of a power system. Recent applications of the energy blockchain in microgrids only consider the energy transactions between peers without considering the technical issues that can arise, especially when the system is islanded. One contribution of the paper is, thus, to depict a comprehensive framework of the technical and economic management of microgrids in the blockchain era, considering, for the first time, the provision of ancillary services and, in particular, of the voltage regulation service. When more PV nodes are operating in the grid, large reactive power flows may appear in the branches. In order to limit such flows, a reactive optimal power flow (R-OPF) is solved, setting the voltage at the PV buses as variables within prescribed limits. Each PV generator will thus contribute to voltage regulation, receiving a remuneration included in the transaction and certified by the blockchain technology. For showing how this system can work, a test microgrid, where some energy transactions take place, has been considered. For each transaction, the R-OPF assigns the reactive power to the PV buses. The R-OPF is solved by a glow-worm swarm optimizer. Finally, the paper proposes a method for remuneration of reactive power provision; this method, integrated into the blockchain, allows evaluating the contribution to voltage regulation and increases the transparency and cost traceability in the transactions. The application section shows the implementation of a Tendermint-based energy transaction platform integrating R-OPF and the earlier cited technical assessments.