Design and specification of a blockchain-based P2P energy trading platform

During the past years, we observe that the topic of blockchain and its application to various domains is gaining momentum. Thereby, blockchain clearly goes beyond crypto-currencies and offers a distributed ledger platform for implementing different services in a transparent and trustful manner. Potential applications can encompass the domains of mobility, supply chains, international trade, financial products, voting systems and especially the domain of energy, aspects of which are at the heart of this paper. In the current publication, we present a peer-2-peer (P2P) energy trading system based on the Ethereum blockchain and dedicated architecture and components that realize transparent, secure and trustful trading processes. The customers of the P2P trading system are provided by stakeholders (e.g. private house/apartment owners) that are able to consume and share renewable energy (e.g. originating from solar panels). We present the design, specification, technological stack and implementation of the Ethereum based P2P energy trading system, provide a use case flow which is demonstrated in our lab and measure some performance indicators of our prototype. Finally, we evaluate the design decisions based on our experiences.