Smart contract-based campus demonstration of decentralized transactive energy auctions

Abstract

Transactive energy paradigms will enable the exchange of energy from a distributed set of prosumers. While prosumers have access to distributed energy resources, these resources are intermittently available. There is a need for distributed markets to enable the exchange of energy in transactive environments, however, the large number of potential prosumers introduces challenges in the establishment of trust between prosumers. Markets for transactive environments create other challenges, such as establishing clearing prices for energy and exchanging money between prosumers. Blockchains provide a unique technology to address this distributed trust problem through the use of a distributed ledger, cryptocurrencies, and the execution of smart contracts. This paper introduces a smart contract that implements a transactive energy auction that operates without the need for a trusted entitys oversight. The auction mechanism implements a Vickrey second price auction, which guarantees bidders will submit honest bids. The contract is implemented on transactive agents on the WSU campus interacting with a 72kW PV array and the Ethereum blockchain. The contract is then used to execute auctions based on the energy from the the PV array and simulated building loads to demonstrate the auctions operations.