Smarter City: Smart Energy Grid based on Blockchain Technology

TLDR

Smart cities aim to improve quality of life and services by harnessing ICT to collect and analyze data from sensors, wearables, and IoT, yet integrating diverse technologies remains a major challenge. This study explores the Smart Energy Grid pillar of smart cities, focusing on enabling citizens to buy and sell energy within an urban environment. The proposed solution employs blockchain to connect the grid, enabling secure information exchange and peer‑to‑peer energy trading between providers and citizens via a shared ledger.

Abstract

<p class='IJASEITAbtract'><span lang='EN-GB'>The improvement of the Quality of Life (QoL) and the enhancement of the Quality of Services (QoS) represent the main goal of every city evolutionary process. It is possible making cities smarter promoting innovative solutions by use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for collecting and analysing large amounts of data generated by several sources, such as sensor networks, wearable devices, and IoT devices spread among the city. The integration of different technologies and different IT systems, needed to build smart city applications and services, remains the most challenge to overcome. In the Smart City context, this paper intends to investigate the Smart Environment pillar, and in particular the aspect related to the implementation of Smart Energy Grid for citizens in the urban context. The innovative characteristic of the proposed solution consists of using the Blockchain technology to join the Grid, exchanging information, and buy/sell energy between the involved nodes (energy providers and private citizens), using the Blockchain granting ledger.</span>