EnergyCoin Foundation joins research project University Utrecht: store peer-to-peer energy transactions on the EnergyCoin blockchain

On 1st of December the B-DER project has started. EnergyCoin Foundation is a partner in the research project together with Utrecht University and Resourcefully. We are going to build a framework for smart flexible energy infrastructure: a Blockchain-based platform for peer-to-peer energy transactions between Distributed Energy Resources.

The energy production landscape is being reshaped by distributed energy resources (DER), such as solar panels, battery energy storage, electric vehicles and charging stations. The rapid deployment of these distributed energy resources calls for management schemes of these resources to guarantee grid reliability in the future. Proposed control schemes, such as demand response, assume that the operation of DER will be centrally managed by an aggregator or a cooperative utility. However, these centralized control schemes suffer from scalability issues when the number of DER increase significantly. In addition, it is unclear how these management systems work in the face of incentive issues or regulatory shortcomings.

Goal

This project will develop a platform to enable peer-to-peer energy transactions between DER, allowing households, with energy generation capabilities, to trade energy with each other. Besides trade can also involve other DER in the neighbourhood, such as EV charging stations, in a distributed, optimal, verifiable and secure fashion. To achieve this mission, the project partners will develop an optimization algorithm that allows households to minimize their electricity cost and maximize benefits from their PV system while at the same time ensuring a profitable charging price for EV charging stations owners.

To enable secure and verifiable energy transactions between entities, we will implement the optimization algorithm on a blockchain architecture. The project assesses the technical and economic potential of the developed platform using actual data of households’ demand and PV generation profiles, as well as EV charging stations demand in a residential neighborhood in Amsterdam. The assessment will be analyzed for different penetration levels of DER currently and in the future and under different electricity pricing and support schemes.

The EnergyCoin Foundation will share their experience on blockchain technique, cryptocurrencies, local climate policy and climate communication.

Follow the news section of this site for updates and B-DER on Twitter.

And at the website of Utrecht University.