Design and Implementation of a Blockchain-Based Energy Trading Platform for Electric Vehicles in Smart Campus Parking Lots

Felipe Condon Silva,Mohamed A. Ahmed,José Manuel Martínez,Young-Chon Kim

doi:10.3390/en12244814

Abstract

This paper proposes a blockchain-based energy trading platform for electric vehicles in smart campus parking lots. Smart parking lots are smart places capable of supporting both parking and charging services for electric vehicles. The electric vehicle owner may want to charge energy at a low price and sell it during peak hours at a higher price. The proposed system architecture consists of two layers: the physical infrastructure layer and the cyber infrastructure layer. The physical infrastructure layer represents all of the physical components located in the campus distribution power system, such as electric vehicles charging stations, transformers, and electric feeders, while the cyber infrastructure layer supports the operation of the physical infrastructure layer and enables selling/buying energy among participants. Blockchain technology is a promising candidate to facilitate auditability and traceability of energy transactions among participants. A real case of a parking lot with a realistic parking pattern in a university campus is considered. The system consists of a university control center and various parking lot local controllers (PLLCs). The PLLC broadcasts the electricity demand and the grid price, and each electric vehicle owner decides whether to charge/discharge based on their benefits. The proposed system is implemented on Hyperledger Fabric. Participants, assets, transactions, and smart contracts are defined and discussed. Two scenarios are considered. The first scenario represents energy trading between electric vehicles as sellers and the PLLC as a buyer, while the second scenario involves energy trading between electric vehicles as buyers and the PLLC as a seller. The proposed platform provides profits for participants, as well as enables balancing for the university load demand locally.

Highlights

Nowadays, the distribution power system is experiencing fundamental changes with the increasing number of distributed energy resources (DERs), such as small-scale wind turbines, photovoltaic systems, energy storage systems, and electric vehicles
The energy trading network consists of three types of participants: selling electric vehicle (SEV), buying electric vehicle (BEV), and the parking lot local of participants: selling electric vehicle (SEV), buying electric vehicle (BEV), and the parking lot local controller (PLLC)
The parking lot of engineering building 2–7, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju campus is considered as a case study

Summary

Introduction

The distribution power system is experiencing fundamental changes with the increasing number of distributed energy resources (DERs), such as small-scale wind turbines, photovoltaic systems, energy storage systems, and electric vehicles. With these developments in DERs, many end-users are transforming from energy consumers to energy prosumers. Peer-to-peer energy trading is a new energy trading arrangement among prosumers and consumers in the distribution power system This new arrangement enables excessive energy from small-scale DERs to be traded locally, which provides many benefits for all participants, including consumers, prosumers, as well as the distribution system operator (DSO). Peer-to-peer energy trading facilitates a local energy balance, as well as increases the benefits of all consumers and prosumers

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