Energy Trading in the Internet of Energy using Ethereum Smart Contracts and Smart Energy Meters

Abstract

The emergence of the Internet of Energy (IoE) has paved the way for decentralized energy trading, which involves the exchange of energy among prosumers (both producers and consumers) in a peer-to-peer (P2P) fashion. Smart energy meters, which can measure the energy consumption and production of prosumers, play a critical role in IoE-based energy trading. However, the lack of trust and transparency among prosumers and energy traders is a major barrier to the widespread adoption of P2P energy trading. In this context, Ethereum smart contracts can provide a solution by enabling transparent and secure execution of energy trading agreements among prosumers. This paper proposes an energy trading system that leverages Ethereum smart contracts and smart energy meters to enable P2P energy trading in the IoE. This work describes the architecture of the system and the implementation details of the smart contracts used for energy trading. This paper has presented a case pseudo code for an efficient and secure approach to trade energy based on Ethereum. It moved most of the processing and storage off-chain (in opposition to several existing solutions) to minimize the cost of using Blockchain, in terms of gas paid to process and store data related to smart. This was done while keeping the trading process as secure as when all processing and storage are performed on-chain. It also made use of stable coins to overcome the exchange rate instability of cryptocurrencies.