Abstract
Nowadays, the adoption of demand response programs is still lagging due to the prosumers’ lack of awareness, fear of losing control and privacy of energy data, etc. Programs decentralization, by adopting promising technologies such as blockchain, may bring significant advantages in terms of transparency, openness, improved control, and increased active participation of prosumers. Nevertheless, even though in general the transparency of the public blockchain is a desirable feature in the energy domain, the prosumer energy data is sensitive and rather private, thus, a privacy-preserving solution is required. In this paper, we present a decentralized implementation of demand response programs on top of the public blockchain which deals with the privacy of the prosumer’s energy data using zero-knowledge proofs and validates on the blockchain the prosumer’s activity inside the program using smart contracts. Prosumer energy data is kept private, while on the blockchain it is stored a zero-knowledge proof that is generated by the prosumer itself allowing the implementation of functions to validate potential deviations from the request and settle prosumer’s activity. The solution evaluation results are promising in terms of ensuring the privacy of prosumer energy data stored in the public blockchain and detecting potential data inconsistencies.
Highlights
Decentralized management of energy systems is an emerging trend that facilitates the implementation of actions to self-supply the local energy demand and to intelligently manage the demand side by engaging prosumers in demand response (DR) programs to achieve high desirable smart energy grid goals such as resiliency, autonomy, and decarbonization
We have presented a solution for assuring the privacy of prosumer energy data
We have presented a solution for assuring the privacy of prosumer energy data in in the context of decentralized DR programs implemented using blockchain and smart contracts
Summary
Decentralized management of energy systems is an emerging trend that facilitates the implementation of actions to self-supply the local energy demand and to intelligently manage the demand side by engaging prosumers in demand response (DR) programs to achieve high desirable smart energy grid goals such as resiliency, autonomy, and decarbonization. Smart meters, dynamic energy pricing schemes, and home energy management systems should allow network operators, energy suppliers, and prosumers to define DR programs for promoting load flexibility shifting actions. The DR automation will allow distributed system operators (DSOs) to acquire in a cost-effective manner the required flexibility and to integrate a larger share of renewable energy sources (RESs) to effectively stabilize the grid without compromising supply security and network reliability. In Europe, despite the increased interest in this area, the implementation of DR is still lagging due to the prosumers’ lack of awareness and audit of the DR
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