Privacy-Preserving Peer-to-Peer Energy Trading in Blockchain-Enabled Smart Grids Using Functional Encryption

Abstract

Advanced smart grid technologies enable energy prosumers to trade surplus energy from their distributed renewable energy sources with other peer prosumers through peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading. In many previous works, P2P energy trading was facilitated by blockchain technology through blockchain’s distributive nature and capacity to run smart contracts. However, the feature that all the data and transactions on a blockchain are visible to all blockchain nodes may significantly threaten the privacy of the parties participating in P2P energy trading. There are many previous works that have attempted to mitigate this problem. However, all these works focused on the anonymity of participants but did not protect the data and transactions. To address this issue, we propose a P2P energy trading system on a blockchain where all bids are encrypted and peer matching is performed on the encrypted bids by a functional encryption-based smart contract. The system guarantees that the information encoded in the encrypted bids is protected, but the peer matching transactions are performed by the nodes in a publicly verifiable manner through smart contracts. We verify the feasibility of the proposed system by implementing a prototype composed of smart meters, a distribution system operator (DSO) server, and private Ethereum blockchain.

Optimal Fuzzy Energy Trading System in a Fog-Enabled Smart Grid

“…Moreover, the proposed system is computationally expensive and does not make use of the energy trading factors, e.g., real-time price, times of the day, outdoor temperature, and buyers' interest. Lastly, in 2020, Son et al proposed a P2P energy trading system for smart grids [19]. The main objective of their work was to encrypt bids and preserve the privacy of users.…”

DePET: A Decentralized Privacy-Preserving Energy Trading Scheme for Vehicular Energy Network via Blockchain and K - Anonymity

“…The authors in Reference [23] proposed a consortium blockchain-based scheme (BETS) to tackle the privacy leakage problem in a smart grid, which provides a noise-based privacy-preserving method to hide the trading distribution tendency. The authors in Reference [24] proposed a P2P energy trading system on public blockchain where all bids are encrypted and peer matching is performed on the encrypted bids by a functional encryption-based smart contract.…”

“…Existing anonymity-based schemes can be divided into two groups: identifier anonymity [24] and location anonymity. The identifier anonymity-based strategy hides the EV owners' real identifier with a set of pseudonyms.…”

New Methods for Improved Prosumer Trading and Energy Poverty Mitigation in Microgrids using Crowdsourcing Concepts and Blockchain Technologies

“…In another perspective, paper [28] considers a P2P energy trading method using a private Ethereum blockchain ledger where all bids are encrypted and peer matching is done on the encrypted offers by a functional encryption-based contract.…”

“…Methodologies based on the remote sensing of the atmospheric conditions are the primary source of information for the development of numerical models that aim at supporting the planning and operation of an electric system with a substantial contribution of intermittent energy sources [49]. For local trading of such electricity surplus, the LEM operators consider the blockchain concept [11,12,16,28,29,40,41,48], or direct bilateral contracts [50,51]. These market models aim to provide secure and affordable energy supply for the end user, which is essential for the functioning of an economy in which energy poverty is reduced and the needs of vulnerable social groups are taken into account [52].…”