Blockchain Enabled Secure Transaction System for Decentralized Energy Trading in Microgrids

Abstract

Decentralized energy trading is an evolving construct of new techniques, services and a new interface, being integrated with the legacy Microgrid network. With this advancement, the security risks of the Microgrid and the vulnerabilities of the energy exchange procedure have also been evolved. Until recently, the prime focus was to only improve the reliability of the Microgrid network. But now, with the addition of the I.C.T and the integration of latest technologies like Blockchain, the issues of security and privacy are also of paramount importance. The increased dependence on the information and its distributed management will now need more than simple entity authentication and encryption.The full potential of this system can be only achieved if it has the ability to tolerate and survive cyber-attacks of today and of the future. To handle the aforementioned issues, this research work proposes a blockchain-based secure Decentralized Transaction System (DTS) for energy trading in microgrids. The proposed system has been implemented using two frameworks. It comprises of a secure market model that facilitates energy trade between energy users. A simplistic energy exchange mechanism has been formulated that ensures data integrity and privacy of the participating energy users. A prosumer-centric consensus mechanism has been employed to incentivize the prosumers and ensure the availability of energy in the microgrid at all times. An efficient and dynamic pricing mechanism has been used to reduce the supply and demand disparity. A comprehensive trust model based on commitments has been adopted for ensuring the reliability of the participating energy user. Additionally, a hardware-based access control mechanism has been utilized to make the proposed DTS a physical and cyber-secure system. Other than this, a framework of smart contracts has been deployed to provide a comprehensive solution that ensures privacy, security, anonymity, auditability and confidentiality of the generated energy information. To validate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed DTS, it was implemented on the Ethereum platform using realworld data. The simulation results indicate a 34.83% reduction in computational overhead for the security mechanism employed, along with a 31.71% improvement in the performance of the energy exchange mechanism compared to similar systems. Additionally, the results reveal a 40.57% performance gain for the proposed consensus mechanism, while the market mechanism shows an improvement of 18.75%.