Blockchain technology applications in the energy sector: A review of challenges and opportunities

Recent decades, Peer- to-peer transaction platforms have become increasingly important in different economic use cases. These technologies are attractive for utilities, developers, financial institutions, Governments and academic communities. Some utilities in energy sector run applications for blockchain in energy sector projects. This paper discussed fundamental concepts of blockchain technology at first. Then opportunities and challenges face energy sector by using blockchain in some use cases. Blockchain technologies could be applied to a variety of use cases related to the operations and business processes of energy companies. Existing literature dictates potential applications and aspect of business models that might be affected, as summarized: billing, sales and marketing, trading and markets, automation, smart and grid application and data transfer, greed management, security and identity management, sharing of resources, competition and transparency. Notable use cases are wholesale energy trading and supply, imbalance settlement, digitalization and IoT platforms and peer to peer trading and decentralized energy.