Benefits and Risks of Using Blockchain in Smart Energy: A Literature Review

Abstract

Being a decentralized system makes Blockchain a suitable technology solution in many cases. The Smart Energy domain has the potential to benefit from the use of Blockchain, by improving data and transaction management, through applications such as peer-to-peer energy trading, grid enhancement, and electric vehicle support. Many researchers have proposed models and prototypes of blockchain-based applications, which are expected to improve the performance of smart energy systems. In this report, a qualitative literature review was performed to look into a sample of these application proposals and to try to identify the impacts of blockchain technology in Smart Energy. This resulted in the discovery of both positive and negative factors. The beneficial factors include increased security, improved data privacy, data transparency and immutability, removal of third-party control and trust, ubiquitous solution, and greater data accessibility. The list of challenges includes limited scalability and speed, off-chain support requirement, high establishment and maintenance cost, and requiring further practical tests. One of the interesting findings is that the impact of Blockchain technology as to whether it may increase or decrease transaction costs is still unclear. Finally, the paper recommends that a future study may focus on economic feasibility and transaction costs, and ascertain which Smart Energy cases and application designs Contemporary Management Research 206 are more appropriate for Blockchain technology.

Factors Affecting the Organizational Adoption of Blockchain Technology: Extending the Technology–Organization–Environment (TOE) Framework in the Australian Context

“…Yoo, et al [85] mentioned perceived risks as a barrier to the organizational adoption of BCT. The risks cause doubt among organizations towards BCT adoption [86,87]. Therefore, it can be hypothesized that: Hypothesis 13 (H13).…”

Toward Blockchain Technology in the Energy Environment

“…Table 1 summarizes the survey works on energy-blockchain technology applications through various key topics such as energy internet, smart city, P2P energy-trading, electric vehicles (EVs), decentralized storage, blockchain with artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain privacy/security. As shown in Table 1, the majority of the studies examined the application of blockchain in P2P and EVs (e.g., [13,14,[16][17][18]). Other fields such as energy internet and smart city were also discussed by the authors of [13][14][15]18], while the area of decentralized storage was only investigated by the authors of [17,18].…”

“…As shown in Table 1, the majority of the studies examined the application of blockchain in P2P and EVs (e.g., [13,14,[16][17][18]). Other fields such as energy internet and smart city were also discussed by the authors of [13][14][15]18], while the area of decentralized storage was only investigated by the authors of [17,18]. However, none of the reviewed articles fully examined the artificial intelligence (AI), security, and privacy in blockchain.…”

Demonstration of Blockchain Based Peer to Peer Energy Trading System with Real-Life Used PHEV and HEMS Charge Control

“…The realization of P2P energy trading has high affinity with implementation of renewable energy, for it is capable of empowering small energy producers, and diversify energy production profiles quickly [3,4]. In the realization of P2P energy trading, blockchain is a promising concept, with its benefits in data security, immutability, and higher efficiency in administrative processes [5,6].…”