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Blockchain Applications in Smart Energy Grids

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Intelligent Sensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2022) | Viewed by 17915

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Senior Researcher at Distributed Systems Research Laboratory; Senior lecturer at Computer Science Department, Faculty of Automation and Computer Science, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, 400027, 26-28 Baritiu street, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Interests: blockchain; distributed ledger technologies; smart energy grid; peer to peer energy trading; demand response management; decentralized energy markets

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Guest Editor
Computer Science Department, Faculty of Automation and Computer Science, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, 400027, 26-28 Baritiu street, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Interests: blockchain; smart environments; complex distributed systems; machine learning; energy efficiency and smart grid
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Professor at Computer Science Department, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, 26-28 Baritiu street, 400027 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Interests: Distributed Systems; Intelligent Systems; Autonomic Computing; Green Computing; Smart Cities

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Computer Science Department, Faculty of Automation and Computer Science, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, 400027, 26-28 Baritiu Street, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Interests: ambient assistive living; adaptive systems; blockchain; decentralized distributed systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Researcher at Distributed Systems Research Laboratory; Senior lecturer at Computer Science Department, Faculty of Automation and Computer Science, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, 400027, 26-28 Baritiu Street, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Interests: IoT; blockchain; big data analytics; multidisciplinary optimization; complex systems modelling; smart energy grid
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) or commonly known as blockchain, is a disruptive technology that can drive the decentralization of the energy grid providing effective ways to reduce energy cost, improve resilience and security of energy supply, local usage of renewable energy, or competition among energy stakeholders. Blockchain brings several advantages in the management of smart grid such as decentralization of trust, peer-to-peer energy trading, the immutability of energy transactions, token-based digitization of energy, rules encoding using smart contracts, etc. However, employing blockchain techniques in smart energy grid applications still has technical challenges and limitations which require in-depth analysis and further research: limited scalability, low privacy of energy data on the public chain, transaction cost, energy peers’ consensus, integration of private blockchains, policy regulations, etc. Also, there is a need for improved local coordination that might help to utilize the maximum potential of decentralized renewable energy using local resources and wider engagement of local communities. This Special Issue offers opportunities for publishing innovative solutions, techniques, algorithms, models, and technologies for the development and management of blockchain applications in smart energy grids. Potential interesting topics for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to the following subjects:

  • Blockchain and Demand Response
  • Models for peer to peer energy trading
  • Blockchain driven coordination of energy prosumers
  • Decentralized local energy markets
  • Blockchain based data privacy and security in smart grid
  • Decentralized control of flexibility assets
  • Blockchain scalability and integration of IoT energy meters
  • Blockchain and local energy communities
  • Decentralized operation of Virtual Power Plants.

Dr. Claudia Daniela Antal
Dr. Tudor Cioara
Dr. Ioan Salomie
Dr. Ionut Anghel
Dr. Marcel Antal
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • Smart Energy Grids
  • Blockchain
  • Smart Contracts
  • Demand Response
  • Energy Markets
  • IoT
  • Energy Communities
  • Virtual Power Plants

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 3144 KiB  
Article
Decentralized P2P Electricity Trading Model for Thailand
by Anchisa Pinyo, Athikom Bangviwat, Christoph Menke and Antonello Monti
Sensors 2021, 21(21), 7413; https://doi.org/10.3390/s21217413 - 8 Nov 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2858
Abstract
Thailand’s power system has been facing an energy transition due to the increasing amount of Renewable Energy (RE) integration, prosumers with self-consumption, and digitalization-based business models in a Local Energy Market (LEM). This paper introduces a decentralized business model and a possible trading [...] Read more.
Thailand’s power system has been facing an energy transition due to the increasing amount of Renewable Energy (RE) integration, prosumers with self-consumption, and digitalization-based business models in a Local Energy Market (LEM). This paper introduces a decentralized business model and a possible trading platform for electricity trading in Thailand’s Micro-Grid to deal with the power system transformation. This approach is Hybrid P2P, a market structure in which sellers and buyers negotiate on energy exchanging by themselves called Fully P2P trading or through the algorithm on the market platform called Community-based trading. A combination of Auction Mechanism (AM), Bill Sharing (BS), and Traditional Mechanism (TM) is the decentralized price mechanism proposed for the Community-based trading. The approach is validated through a test case in which, during the daytime, the energy import and export of the community are significantly reduced when 75 consumers and 25 PV rooftop prosumers participate in this decentralized trading model. Furthermore, a comparison analysis confirms that the decentralized business model outperforms a centralized approach on community and individual levels. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Blockchain Applications in Smart Energy Grids)
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32 pages, 4554 KiB  
Article
Blockchain Based Transaction System with Fungible and Non-Fungible Tokens for a Community-Based Energy Infrastructure
by Nikita Karandikar, Antorweep Chakravorty and Chunming Rong
Sensors 2021, 21(11), 3822; https://doi.org/10.3390/s21113822 - 31 May 2021
Cited by 65 | Viewed by 10854
Abstract
Renewable energy microgeneration is rising leading to creation of prosumer communities making it possible to extract value from surplus energy and usage flexibility. Such a peer-to-peer energy trading community requires a decentralized, immutable and access-controlled transaction system for tokenized energy assets. In this [...] Read more.
Renewable energy microgeneration is rising leading to creation of prosumer communities making it possible to extract value from surplus energy and usage flexibility. Such a peer-to-peer energy trading community requires a decentralized, immutable and access-controlled transaction system for tokenized energy assets. In this study we present a unified blockchain-based system for energy asset transactions among prosumers, electric vehicles, power companies and storage providers. Two versions of the system were implemented on Hyperledger Fabric. Assets encapsulating an identifier or unique information along with value are modelled as non-fungible tokens (NFT), while those representing value only are modelled as fungible tokens (FT). We developed the associated algorithms for token lifecycle management, analyzed their complexities and encoded them in smart contracts for performance testing. The results show that performance of both implementations are comparable for most major operations. Further, we presented a detailed comparison of FT and NFT implementations based on use-case, design, performance, advantages and disadvantages. Our implementation achieved a throughput of 448.3 transactions per second for the slowest operation (transfer) with a reasonably low infrastructure. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Blockchain Applications in Smart Energy Grids)
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24 pages, 5743 KiB  
Article
Bi-Directional Mutual Energy Trade between Smart Grid and Energy Districts Using Renewable Energy Credits
by Sana Rehman, Bilal Khan, Jawad Arif, Zahid Ullah, Abdullah J. Aljuhani, Ahmad Alhindi and Sahibzada M. Ali
Sensors 2021, 21(9), 3088; https://doi.org/10.3390/s21093088 - 29 Apr 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2979
Abstract
A central authority, in a conventional centralized energy trading market, superintends energy and financial transactions. The central authority manages and controls transparent energy trading between producer and consumer, imposes a penalty in case of contract violation, and disburses numerous rewards. However, the management [...] Read more.
A central authority, in a conventional centralized energy trading market, superintends energy and financial transactions. The central authority manages and controls transparent energy trading between producer and consumer, imposes a penalty in case of contract violation, and disburses numerous rewards. However, the management and control through the third party pose a significant threat to the security and privacy of consumers’/producers’ (participants) profiles. The energy transactions between participants involving central authority utilize users’ time, money, and impose a computational burden over the central controlling authority. The Blockchain-based decentralized energy transaction concept, bypassing the central authority, is proposed in Smart Grid (SG) by researchers. Blockchain technology braces the concept of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) energy transactions. This work encompasses the SolarCoin-based digital currency blockchain model for SG incorporating RE. Energy transactions from Prosumer (P) to Prosumer, Energy District to Energy District, and Energy District to SG are thoroughly investigated and analyzed in this work. A robust demand-side optimized model is proposed using Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) to maximize Prosumer Energy Surplus (PES), Grid revenue (GR), percentage energy transactions accomplished, and decreased Prosumer Energy Cost (PEC). Real-time averaged energy data of Australia are employed, and a piece-wise energy price mechanism is implemented in this work. The graphical analysis and tabular statistics manifest the efficacy of the proposed model. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Blockchain Applications in Smart Energy Grids)
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