Blockchain-Based Peer-to-Peer Energy Trading: Design and Implementation of the Tokenized Decentralized Energy Management System (DEMS)

Abstract

Traditional energy markets are hindered by centralization, high transaction costs, and the systemic exclusion of small-scale prosumers. While blockchain-based peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading platforms offer a decentralized alternative, most suffer from scalability bottlenecks, volatile transaction fees, and poor regulatory alignment—limiting real-world deployment. To bridge this gap, we propose decentralized energy management system (DEMS): a decentralized energy management system built on a permissioned Hyperledger Besu network with IBFT 2.0 consensus, ERC-20-compliant ENRTokens, and a hybrid Web2/Web3 authentication layer. DEMS enables secure, transparent, and regulation-aware P2P energy trading within positive energy districts (PEDs). Evaluated on a 4-node consortium and scaled to 50 nodes via Hyperledger Caliper, the system achieves 5–7 transactions per second (TPS) with sub-2-second finality and predictable operational costs. Unlike public Ethereum or DAG-based alternatives, DEMS supports complex smart contract logic while ensuring GDPR-compliant data handling, role-based access control and auditability. This work contributes a novel, regulation-oriented architecture that integrates energy tokenization with real-world policy constraints, laying the groundwork for scalable, AI-enhanced decentralized energy markets.