With the development of distributed and renewable energy resources and smart grids, energy management systems that allow electricity prosumers to schedule their power usage, are seen as a prominent solution for reducing electricity costs. This paper presents a novel blockchain-based mechanism to incentivize prosumers to save energy, while preserving their privacy. In the proposed mechanism, each prosumer utilizes an energy management system that is based on the percentage power change (PPC) at each hour of the day. The use of PPC values allows the proposed blockchain to preserve the privacy of the prosumers as no sensitive information is shared. The calculated PPC values are shared among the prosumers. The prosumer with the minimum PPC value is selected as the validator of the blockchain, which is responsible for creating the next block of the blockchain. The problem of approving the validator, by other prosumers, is formulated using a novel zero-metric weighted average consensus. The communication model required to reach this consensus is investigated and the consensus value is analytically derived. Multiple test systems with varying number of prosumers are simulated and analyzed. The results demonstrate the capability of the proposed mechanism to sustain energy while preserving privacy in a scalable manner.

中文翻译：

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面向电力消费者的基于区块链的隐私保护和节能机制

随着分布式和可再生能源以及智能电网的发展，允许电力生产者安排电力使用的能源管理系统被视为降低电力成本的重要解决方案。本文提出了一种新的基于区块链的机制，以激励产消者节约能源，同时保护他们的隐私。在提议的机制中，每个产消者都使用基于一天中每个小时的百分比功率变化 (PPC) 的能源管理系统。PPC 值的使用允许提议的区块链保护产消者的隐私，因为没有共享敏感信息。计算出的 PPC 值在产消者之间共享。选择具有最小 PPC 值的产消者作为区块链的验证者，它负责创建区块链的下一个区块。其他产消者批准验证器的问题是使用新颖的零度量加权平均共识来制定的。研究达成此共识所需的通信模型，并分析得出共识值。模拟和分析具有不同数量的产消者的多个测试系统。结果证明了所提出的机制在以可扩展的方式保护隐私的同时维持能量的能力。模拟和分析具有不同数量的产消者的多个测试系统。结果证明了所提出的机制在以可扩展的方式保护隐私的同时维持能量的能力。模拟和分析具有不同数量的产消者的多个测试系统。结果证明了所提出的机制在以可扩展的方式保护隐私的同时维持能量的能力。