Distributed Ledger Technologies for Peer-to-Peer Local Markets in Distribution Networks

• Published in: Energies (Basel) Vol. 12; no. 17; p. 3249
• Main Authors: Troncia, Matteo, Galici, Marco, Mureddu, Mario, Ghiani, Emilio, Pilo, Fabrizio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 23.08.2019
• Subjects: ancillary services; Bilateral agreements; Blockchain; Continuous Double Auction; Costs; Demand; Distributed generation; Distributed ledger; Distributed Ledger Technologies; Electric power; Electricity; Electricity distribution; Energy industry; Energy sources; International conferences; Internet access; Internet of Things; local energy markets; peer to peer; Peer to peer computing; Power plants; Power supply; smart contracts; Social networks; Belgium; Spain
• ISSN: 1996-1073; 1996-1073
• DOI: 10.3390/en12173249

The newest Distributed Ledger Technology platforms, which delegate the execution of complex tasks in the form of Smart Contracts, make it possible to devise novel local electricity market frameworks, which are performed in a fully automated fashion. This paper proposes a novel fully automated platform for energy and ancillary service markets in distribution networks, able to run in a decentralized fashion, bypassing the need for a physical central authority. The proposed platform, able to perform the role of Virtual Decentralized Market Authority, shows excellent potential applications in the management of local ancillary service markets in local energy communities of various sizes. The proposed Virtual Decentralized Market Authority showed reasonable running costs and comparable technical management capabilities with respect to a physical, centralized managing authority.