Maturity of Blockchain Technology in Local Electricity Markets

Abstract

Currently, blockchain technology is a widely discussed hype in the energy community. It may have the potential to revolutionize the energy system and support the energy transition towards distributed renewable generation. In particular, local electricity markets (LEMs) seem to provide applications for the usage of blockchain technology. Through its innovative design as a distributed and decentralized information system, blockchain supporters see its potential in organizing residential households and prosumers in LEMs. We assess the current maturity of blockchain-based applications for LEMs. To this end, we develop a blockchain maturity model that constitutes a framework for analyzing the current and future maturity of blockchain-based LEMs in a comprehensive structured approach. In a second step, we apply the new blockchain maturity model to an use case of a blockchain-based LEM. Our assessment shows that, in the current status, the project is in an early stage of maturity due to missing regulatory rules and standardization.