Utilizing Blockchain as a Citizen‐Utility for Future Smart Grids

The growing number of distributed energy resources (DER) has driven the uptake of variable energy from renewable energy sources at both utility and distributed scale. This is driving the development of new market models from the traditional centralized energy trading models to distributed energy trading (DET) models. Peer‐to‐peer (P2P) energy trading is an example of DET model that allows consumers and prosumers in the distribution network to trade energy between themselves, lowering cost while providing balancing and other ancillary services to the network. However, DET requires trust in both DER sharing and P2P energy trading transaction. Therefore, enabling technologies such as blockchains can help build trust and track DET transactions efficiently, securely, and at low cost. In this chapter, we examine the factors governing successful deployment of blockchain‐based DET applications and their technical challenges.