Energy blockchain for public energy communities

M. Galici, M. Mureddu, E. Ghiani, G. Celli, F. Pilo, P. Porcu, B. Canetto

Applied Sciences Vol. 11, nº. 8, pp. 3457-1 - 3457-14

Summary:

This paper suggests an application of blockchain as an energy open data ledger, designed to save and track data regarding the energy footprint of public buildings and public energy communities. The developed platform permits writing energy production and consumption of public buildings using blockchain-enabled smart meters. Once authenticated on the blockchain, this data can be made available to the public domain for techno-economic analyses for either research studies and internal or third parties audits, increasing, in this way, the perceived transparency of the public institutions. A further feature of the platform, starting on the previously disclosed raw data, allows calculating, validating, and sharing sustainability indicators of public buildings and facilities, allowing the tracking of their improvements in sustainability goals. The paper also provides the preliminary results of a field-test experimentation of the proposed platform on a group of public buildings, highlighting the possible benefits of its widespread exploitation.

Keywords: energy communities; internet of things; blockchain; energy analytics; energy open data; sustainability KPIs

JCR Impact Factor and WoS quartile: 2,838 - Q2 (2021); 2,500 - Q1 (2023)

DOI reference: https://doi.org/10.3390/app11083457

Published on paper: April 2021.

Published on-line: April 2021.

Citation:
M. Galici, M. Mureddu, E. Ghiani, G. Celli, F. Pilo, P. Porcu, B. Canetto, Energy blockchain for public energy communities. Applied Sciences. Vol. 11, nº. 8, pp. 3457-1 - 3457-14, April 2021. [Online: April 2021]