An Efficient Decentralized Secure Energy Management Framework for Smart Grid System

Abstract

Over the last few decades, emerging technologies (such as Big Data Analytics, Cloud Computing, Software Defined Networks, etc.) necessitated a paradigm shift from a traditional centralized communication infrastructure to decentralized one. In such a setup, billions of Internetenabled devices are interconnected in an environment popularly known as Internet-of-Things (IoT). the number of such interconnections reduces the computational overhead and complexity by distributing the workload among geo-located nodes. However, it may generate various types of security threats and challenges due to the usage of an open channel i.e., the Internet. The security threats such as denial-of-service, eavesdropping, man-in-the-middle, etc. are dependent on authorization, authentication, and accountability (AAA) methods used in the IoT environment. Extensible authentication protocol (EAP) is one of the popular authentication protocols used to mitigate these attacks in an IoT environment. Also, the transport layer security (TLS) and secure socket layer (SSL) are necessary protocols used along EAP for establishing a secure communication channel between various smart devices in this environment. However, the aforementioned schemes are built using a centralized architecture or heavily rely on central decision-making authority, raising issues of a single point of failure and long delay. From the above discussion, it is clear that security and privacy are the major concerns for the successful implementation of any solution in such an environment. Moreover, the evolution of technologies as mentioned above make it difficult to capitalize the existing centralized security mechanism to handle the diverse requirements of geo-dispersed ecosystems (edge computing, smart grid, intelligent transportation systems, etc.) To overcome these issues, blockchain technology is being used that provides identity privacy and transaction security using a decentralized and dependable architecture. It is a peer-to-peer (P2P) technology to provide security and privacy to the users by using various types of consensus mechanisms between different geo-located nodes present on the network. It is a trusted network in which all the nodes are anonymous to each other such that each node has its own ledger to store the history of the transactions. Blockchain is an emerging technology that consists of a chain of digital signatures in a cryptographic system. A distributed ledger technology (DLT) provides security, integrity, confidentiality, and non-repudiation for real-time applications that a centralized system may not provides. Therefore, it is one of the most powerful technologies to provide secure and dependable energy services to different distributed smart communities like vehicle-to-grid (V2G). V2G ii Shubhani Aggarwal, 901703015 technology plays an important role in balancing the energy demand and supply between electric vehicles (EVs) and the service providers (SPs) for demand response management in smartgrid systems. But, there are challenges of security and privacy preservation, data manipulation, transparency, in V2G environments due to conventional centralized mechanisms. Hence, it may increase the energy gap between demand and supply. Hence, there is a requirement for a distributed mechanism to stabilize the energy demand and supply between consumers and prosumers in smart grid systems. In the aforementioned challenges, the research work focused on two problems existing in smart grid systems: (i) an efficient incentive-based energy trading scheme between EVs and SPs, (ii) a secure and decentralized demand response management scheme in smart grid systems. This task has been accomplished in the research work with two different theories such as game theory and auction theory. By gaining knowledge from the study, we designed a P2P energy trading model using blockchain technology. This model represents the energy coins transferred from an energy buyer’s wallet address to the energy seller’s wallet address after the energy exchanges between them. The memory pool of energy aggregators (EAG) has the latest energy blockchain data for verifying the payment transaction. The new transaction records generated by the energy buyers are uploaded to EAGs for auditing, which is further verified and digitally identified by the energy sellers. Therefore to obtain the proper balance between demand and supply on blockchain energy, we implement incentives that reassure energy nodes to fulfil the energy demands out of self-interest. As per the duration of an energy trading, the energy seller is rewarded with energy coins with the contribution of energy exchanges between them. The Proof-of-Authority (PoA) consensus mechanism is used on a blockchain to verify and validate the energy transactions between the energy sellers and buyers. The first approach presents a P2P energy trading scheduling (PETS) scheme. Using this scheme, an energy trading problem is formulated using the PETS scheme between EVs and the SPs in smart grid systems. The PETS scheme is modelled as incentive-based so that more EVs and SPs can participate in energy trading. It provides a high level of security to the users’ private information. Then, the Stackelberg game theory as 1-leader multi-followers is proposed to model the interactions between EVs and the SPs. Moreover, as per the announced price by the leader SP, EVs schedule the battery and manage the energy consumption by minimizing their energy bills. We use a genetic algorithm in smart grid systems to optimize energy bills and maximize SP’s profit. The second approach presents the demand response management scheme between EVs and the SPs in smart grid systems. To stabilize the smart grid and manage and control EVs’ evergrowing energy demands, we are formulating an energy trading problem as non-linear, which maximizes the social welfare between the EVs and the SPs. Then, to solve the problem of demand response between them, a double auction algorithm is designed in a V2G environment to manage the EVs’ private information by rational and weak balanced budget (WBB) properties. A consortium blockchain-based framework is designed to ensure secure energy transactions iii Shubhani Aggarwal, 901703015 between them without a trusted third-party authenticator. Moreover, the energy pricing and the amount of traded energy problems for demand response are solved by auction mechanisms that maximize social welfare among the nodes.