The Blockchain in Microgrids for Transacting Energy and Attributing Losses

In recent years novel models for energy distribution appeared and islanded microgrids quest for new ways to exchange energy between consumers and producers without the need of central authorities. The blockchain mechanism has emerged as a distributed solution for recording energy transactions in power systems. The blockchain has been used to permit users bartering and selling energy and to keep track of such exchanges without exposing them to tampering. In this work, we consider a novel application of the blockchain in islanded microgrids that includes also annotating energy losses caused by energy transactions, in order to have a more realistic matching between the physical status of the energy grid and the consequent costs attributed to users. To validate our novel use of the blockchain, we carried out simulated experiments for an exemplary islanded microgrid, in which 3 main generators supply 6 load nodes. This validates the compatibility of this new cost attribution model with the supporting physical infrastructure. Preliminary results demonstrate that the superposition of energy transactions in a microgrid changes the distribution of losses in all paths, eventually due to the large reactive flows created by PV systems.