A Secure Distributed Ledger for Transactive Energy: The Electron Volt Exchange (EVE) Blockchain

TL;DR

This paper introduces EVE, a blockchain-based framework for secure, private, and reliable transactive energy trading that prevents theft and false data injection, demonstrated through simulations and Hyperledger Fabric implementation.

Contribution

It presents a novel distributed protocol and algorithm for secure, private, and theft-resistant transactive energy trading on blockchain.

Findings

Effective prevention of theft and false data injection attacks.

Successful implementation and validation using Hyperledger Fabric.

Enhanced privacy and robustness in energy market transactions.

Abstract

The adoption of blockchain for Transactive Energy has gained significant momentum as it allows mutually non-trusting agents to trade energy services in a trustless energy market. Research to date has assumed that the built-in Byzantine Fault Tolerance in recording transactions in a ledger is sufficient to ensure integrity. Such work must be extended to address security gaps including random bilateral transactions that do not guarantee reliable and efficient market operation, and market participants having incentives to cheat when reporting actual production/consumption figures. Work herein introduces the Electron Volt Exchange framework with the following characteristics: 1) a distributed protocol for pricing and scheduling prosumers' production/consumption while keeping constraints and bids private, and 2) a distributed algorithm to prevent theft that verifies prosumers' compliance to scheduled transactions using information from grid sensors (such as smart meters) and mitigates the impact of false data injection attacks. Flexibility and robustness of the approach are demonstrated through simulation and implementation using Hyperledger Fabric.