Design and Implementation of a Local Blockchain-based Peer-to-Peer Energy Exchange Platform

In recent years, attention to renewable energy and distributed generation has increased due to increased energy demand and environmental pollution. To this end, in the new power grid structure, consumers can also play a producer role. Considering that the number of prosumers in this structure is much more than traditional power networks, the need for a secure, transparent, fast, scalable platform for energy exchanges has greatly increased. Blockchain technology can provide such a platform due to its unique properties. Although there are many blockchain-based platforms in different countries in enregy field, but in Iran there is no such platform. Therefore, the main purpose of this paper is to design and implement a local pilot platform for peer-to-peer blockchain-based energy exchange, taking into account the specific conditions of Iran's electricity grid. The macro platform architecture is designed based on the concept of Minimum Viable Product (MVP) considering functional and non-functional requirements in the form of unified modeling language (UML) diagrams. The proposed platform pilot has been implemented in the form of 4 main elements including smart contract, user interface, blockchain platform, and blockchain and non-blockchain databases and has been evaluated and tested using different scenarios. These tests mainly include the unit test and the integrity test, which were successfully performed on the platform. This platform has been designed and implemented for the first time in Iran in accordance with the Ethereum protocol and based on microservice architecture. In addition to the ability to integrate with Ethereum-based systems, this platform is scalable due to its modular design.