Smart Contracts in Energy Systems

Given the ongoing transition towards a more decentralised energy system, the potential of blockchain-enabled smart contracts for the energy sector is being increasingly recognised. Due to their self-executing and tamper-proof nature, they are a key technology for enabling the transition to a more efficient, transparent and transactive energy market. Their applications include coordination of smart electric vehicle charging, automated demand-side response, peer-to-peer energy trading and allocation of control duties amongst the network operators. Nevertheless, their use in the energy sector is still in its early stages as there are many challenges related to security and scalability. In this webinar, we reflect our findings from the systematic review of 178 peer-reviewed publications and 13 innovation projects. This webinar offers a broad perspective on the opportunities and challenges that stakeholders using this technology face, in current and emergent markets. We demonstrate a systematic model of the smart contracting process, by using our novel 6-layer architecture, and share our open-source sample energy contract code. We focus on two mainstream application areas identified as; energy and flexibility trading, and distributed control. The webinar concludes with a critical discussion of the challenges and a set of recommendations that researchers should consider when applying smart contracts in energy systems.