A wide range of solutions, beyond the classical one of building more lines, cables and transformers, have been proposed to modernize the power grid with new technologies, enabling a more smart automatic networked system. These solutions, typically using new technology, go by the name “smart grids” (SG) or “smart-grid technology”. Blockchain technology (BC) is a viable solution to overcome the issues of centralized system. BC is an immutable, distributed and P2P network that provides security, privacy and trust among peers using cryptographic techniques. Machine learning (ML) techniques can be exploited to develop energy prediction algorithms and the proper scheduling of energy usage. A large amount of the energy consumption data of several users is generated from smart meters that also contain users’ private/confidential information as well as sensitive information of utility providers. This high volume of data increases the complexity of data analysis.
Traditionally, the term grid is referred to an electrical system that supports the generation, transmission, distribution and trading of electricity. Figure 31 shows an example of a traditional power grid. A traditional grid transports the electricity generated by large power plants to the electricity consumers. In the distribution network, the energy flow is only in one direction. However, there is a need to replace the electricity from fossil fuel (coal and gas mainly) and manage the increased electrification (EVs, but also in certain industrial processes) that results in higher consumption. Hence, alternative energy sources are required, i.e., RES. Traditional grids have only limited capability to incorporate these sources.
The use of BC technology in the energy sector is a key research topic nowadays. As the energy industry is undergoing tremendous transformations with the adoption of ICT, it has become a prominent research area. Intelligent grid implementation with minimal power loss, high power quality, reliability and security are the main goals to be attained.
The distributed architecture of SG is depicted in Figure 43. However, maintaining all these distributed functionalities by a single centralized server is complex and highly vulnerable [6][13]. The ultimate aim of all the transformations in the grid is to reform the existing energy industry by bringing producers and consumers closer to each other using distributed generation and resources. In centralized systems, all the users, energy operators and market system interactions are dependent on central entities. These intermediaries can monitor, control and support all activities within the elements in the grid [18][14]. Additionally, the long-distance transmission network is opted to deliver energy to end users through distribution stations. The increase in the number of elements associated with the grid raises some concerns [27][15], which include scalability, reliability, availability, communication overhead and so on. All of these issues point toward the need for a decentralized structure for energy grids to create a more dynamic and flexible grid structure [50][16].
Security, energy management, EV charging and energy trading are also some of the areas to be transformed and implemented effectively. As users are becoming prosumers through distributed generation, they can trade electrical energy to other grid users. Traditional methods fail to provide a secure and flexible energy trading platform [44][17] where users can trust each other. Due to privacy and security concerns, most of the users show less interest in participating in energy trading. Hence, a decentralized platform which can create a trust environment for secure energy trading is required. Indeed, the penetration of EVs also has effects, as energy trading between EVs can also be done [62][18].
Several research works explore different techniques to develop an innovative DRM system with the adoption of BC technology. The main idea of most of the works was to develop a secure trading platform for distributed prosumers and EVs. Smart contracts which can execute upon reaching desired conditions gained great acceptance in the DR application [92,93,94,95,96,97,98,99][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40]. Some of the works which aims to develop better DR prototypes are listed in Table 71.
Ref | Major Contribution | Technical Resources | |
---|---|---|---|
[25] | [49] | Evaluate the development of a decentralized EV charging infrastructure using BC, AI and SGs | - |
[106] | [50] | Proposes a decentralized electricity trading framework (DETF) for connected EVs. | Hyperledger, smart contracts, predictive bidding |
[107] | [51] | Proposes DeepCoin, a BC and DL based framework to protect SGs from cyber attacks. | Recurrent neural networks, Hyperledger, PBFT |
[108] | [52] | Explains P2P trading system for sustainable power supply in SGs using BC and ML | Hyperledger, smart contract, PBFT, Predictive model using LSTM |
[109] | [53] | Explains an intelligent EV charging system for new energy companies using consortium BC | Smart contracts, Limited Neighborhood Search with Memory (LNSM) algorithm |
[110] | [54] | Proposes an energy trading approach using machine learning and blockchain technology | Smart contracts K-nearest neighbor |
Ref | Major Contribution | Technologies Used | |
[86] | [27] | Proposes an EV charging scheme in a BC-enabled SG system which minimizes power fluctuation level in grids and charging cost for EV users (AdBev scheme) | Ethereum, smart contracts |
[92] | [33] | Investigate use of BC mechanism in demand management by setting up decentralized P2P energy flexible marketplace | Smart contracts |
[93] | [34] | Design a BC based secure energy trading framework (SETS), having security and privacy preservation to manage demand response management (DRM) | Ethereum, smart contracts, Etcoins |
[94] | [35] | Explains an algorithm for secure DRM in SGs using BC that helps to take efficient energy trading decisions for managing overall grid load | Energy coins, PoW |
[95] | [36] | Proposes a secure model for energy trading using BC, contract based incentive mechanism for load balancing and route optimization algorithm to reduce EV traveling time. | Consortium BC, Proof of Work based on Reputation (PoWR), shortest route algorithm |
[96] | [37] | Proposes a decentralized cooperative DR framework to manage the daily energy exchanges within a community of Smart Buildings and allows participants to decide on day-ahead community power profile, subsequently ensures the forecast tracking during the next day. | Ethereum, smart contracts |
[97] | [38] | Proposes an energy scheduling scheme among multiple microgrids, EV energy scheduling integrated with microgrid operation and introduces a contribution index to prosumers and whole microgrids for prioritizing in auction. | Smart contracts |
[98] | [39] | Introduces a BC-based transactive energy(TE) auction model with incorporated DR techniques for increasing social welfare. | Smart contracts |
[99] | [40] | Addresses the sustainable microgrid design problem by leveraging BC technology to provide the real time-based demand response programs. | Smart contracts |
[100] | [41] | Proposes an optimal power flow based DRM system without any central authority | Smart contracts |