ETHome: Open-source Blockchain Based Energy Community Controller

Schlund J, Ammon L, German R (2018)


Publication Type: Conference contribution, Original article

Publication year: 2018

Publisher: ACM

Series: e-Energy '18

City/Town: New York, NY, USA

Pages Range: 319--323

Conference Proceedings Title: Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Future Energy Systems

Event location: Karlsruhe, Germany DE

ISBN: 978-1-4503-5767-8

URI: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/3208903.3208929

DOI: 10.1145/3208903.3208929

Open Access Link: https://doi.org/10.1145/3208903.3208929

Abstract

This paper describes the proof of concept of a blockchain based organization of a local low voltage energy community. The focus of the concept is efficient use of shared resources to minimize external dependence, and not energy trading. A previously proposed control algorithm, which exploits the power dependency of the efficiency of electrical energy storages, is implemented as a smart contract on a private instance of an Ethereum blockchain to coordinate the operation. It is implemented using four connected Raspberry Pis representing the participating households with pre-given electrical load and photovoltaic conversion as well as a battery. Each household runs an Ethereum full node and an interfacing software. Only the energy technology components are simulated, while the blockchain is actually running on the Raspberry Pis in order to mind the full complexity of the technology. %As consensus algorithms both proof-of-work and the more energy-efficient proof-of-authority are compared. The practicability is proved in a test run and positive effects on the efficiency and the self-sufficiency within the community are observed. A first cost-benefit estimate is given and a further research agenda is presented.

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APA:

Schlund, J., Ammon, L., & German, R. (2018). ETHome: Open-source Blockchain Based Energy Community Controller. In Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Future Energy Systems (pp. 319--323). Karlsruhe, Germany, DE: New York, NY, USA: ACM.

MLA:

Schlund, Jonas, Lorenz Ammon, and Reinhard German. "ETHome: Open-source Blockchain Based Energy Community Controller." Proceedings of the Ninth ACM International Conference on Future Energy Systems (ACM e-Energy), Karlsruhe, Germany New York, NY, USA: ACM, 2018. 319--323.

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