Peer-to-Peer Energy Marketplaces

Distributed energy generation and management technologies such as microgrids, domestic solar installations, community solar installations, and electric vehicles enable energy consumers to also act as providers of energy, or so called prosumers. However, most utility companies’ traditional energy pricing models are subscription-based, where the utility provider predetermines the price of energy sold and consumers have no say in it. Furthermore, most traditional energy marketplaces limit the involvement of individual households to consuming electricity. In this chapter, the organization and blockchain-based designs of peer-to-peer energy and auxiliary service marketplaces are discussed. Next, the potential of blockchain technology to manage real-time and future peer-to-peer energy marketplaces are examined. Such marketplaces are capable of handling transactions in a distributed and heterogeneous system, in which energy resource and storage owners are involved in the energy price decision. Finally, peer-to-peer smart grids flexibility management, aggregation and trading inside and outside renewable energy communities are explored.