A Blockchain-based Smart Grid Model for Rural Electrification in India

Abstract

There are rural areas across India and many other countries who receive unreliable and inadequate electricity supply, or no electricity at all. Electricity is essential for the overall development of an individual, and the society in turn benefits from it. Lack of access to grid electricity forces the rural inhabitants to utilize conventional sources of energy, causing not just inconvenience but also deterioration of the environment. In this paper, the reasons preventing reliable power supply to rural places in India have been discussed. Applicability of Blockchain technology to address these challenges and promote rural electrification is being researched. This paper focuses specifically on problems faced by rural communities due to which they avoid electricity connections, and how these problems can be solved by Blockchain technology. Blockchain has the potential to eliminate expensive third-party service costs, generate additional revenue through peer-to-peer trade, planning the power consumption as per budget through smart metering and maintain transparency and accuracy of energy transactions. However, the road to implementation consists of many challenges to overcome which have been discussed in this paper.