Transactive Energy Solution in a Port’s Microgrid

based on Blockchain Technology

Mostafa Kermani, Giuseppe Parise, Erfan Shirdare & Luigi Martirano
Department of Astronautical, Electrical and Energy Engineering (DIAEE) Sapienza University of Rome, Italy.
{kermani, parise, shirdare, martirano}@ieee.org

Abstract- In the last decade, the importance of that evaluate obtained data from the smart meters installed
modern grids is more sensible than before due to next to the generation, transmission, and consumption points.
provided higher efficiency, reduced peak demand,
improved security resulting in the alteration of grid shape
from conventional grids to smart grids. The case study is
the port of Long Beach (POLB), placed in California,
which consists of 11 independent piers operating as a
single microgrid that has an independent energy
management system. This paper proposes an integrated
energy management strategy based on blockchain
technology for the POLB including all piers that
significantly reduce the amount of peak power imposing
extra cost from the port manager's point of view. In
addition, the benefits of smart grids that are operating
based on blockchain technology, such as high-level
security, and efficient maintenance cost, will be discussed.

Keywords: Blockchain, Interconnected Microgrids,

Transactive Energy, Smart Grid.

I. INTRODUCTION
Today, due to concerns about global warming, climate
change and limited fossil fuels the lack of modern grids was
more sensible than before. In this regard, implementation of
Distributed Generators (DGs) caused the emergence small-
scale grids named microgrids including exclusive
generations based on renewable energy sources (RESs) and
exclusive energy storage system [1-2]. Each microgrid can
transmit energy to the main grid in a case of generated extra
power and receive energy in a case of unsatisfied load.
Microgrid’s equipment follow its energy management
system trying to minimize exchanged power with the main
grid [3]. In larger scale, smart grids are based on a two-way
communication, power and information, between demand
and generation sides causing cost-efficient energy
management and power balance, more secure and reliable
system, mostly in transmission side, by using high-tech
instruments such as advanced meters, energy management
system and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition
(SCADA) systems improving both monitoring and control of
power flowing in generation, transmission and distribution
sides [4]. That is possible by considering the effect of demand
side participation providing day-ahead generation and
consumption prediction.
Fig.1 reveals that system operator manage the whole
system by ordering directly to the smart grid data base server
Fig.1. Smart grid scheme [5].
Basically, the modern grids can be categorized based on
their rated power determining size of the grid. Tab. I reveals
that nanogrids, the smallest one, supports about tens of kW
and as a result, some smart small buildings can be considered
as a nanogrid in point of clients and distribution system
operator. By increment of the nominal power by adding more
loads, DGs and energy storage systems, the grid can be
named as microgrid such as smart universities and smart
commercial building. Finally, smart grids are non-scalable
and can categorize users as small or large smart grids.
As it is clearly shown in Fig. 2, energy consumption
becomes one of undeniable factors in environmental issues
over the last two decades resulting in the importance of
considering appropriate approaches to control and minimized
consumed energy. Using RESs in microgrid not only can
enormously decrease the amount of required energy, but also
can positively affect ports’ other concerns [6]. For instance,
air quality can be controlled because RESs e zero-emission
energy sources [7-8]. In addition, due to the production of
large amounts of noise, which remains as third critical factor
in last three years, by conventional power plants, RESs can
interestingly reduce the amount od produced noise. They can
be positively effective in some other fields such as

978-1-7281-7455-6/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE

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wastewater due to the lack of water for cooling, and climate transactive energy based on blockchain is discussed in
change due to lack of heat production by RESs [9-10]. sections IV. Finally, the conclusion is discussed in section V.

TABLE I. SMART AND MICRO AND NANOGRIDS CLASSIFICATION. II. POLB CASE STUDY AS A MICROGRID
Clients Role of distributed system Generally, connection of networked microgrids in smart
operator (DSO) grid platform is divided to three main configurations that
1. Energy efficiency enhancement microgrids are connected to the main grid in all cases. In the
2. Infrastructure provision for first case, in normal condition there is not any exchanged
Small-scale electric vehicles
and Large- 3. Smart metering and data
energy between microgrids and loads in each side are
Smart scale users’ handling satisfied by local RESs and in a case of insufficient generated
Grids group 4. Minimize the initial investment power in each side, energy will import from main grid to the
and maintenance cost microgrid.
5. Discover power theft and In the second case, first microgrid will satisfy its local
equipment failures loads and in a case of extra generated power by its RESs,
6. HV, MV and LV operation level local loads of second microgrid will be satisfied by microgrid
1. Demand response controlling 1. Meanwhile, in the last case, both microgrids are connected
Commercial
2. Development and maintenance to the main grid, while they are connected to each other to
and Industrial
Microgrids of the distribution network
users exchange power in a case of lack of power in one microgrid
3. MV and LV operation level
and extra power generation capacity in another microgrid.
keep connecting to rest of POLB is one of the busiest and thriving seaports in the
Nanogrids Single
microgrids or to the Main Grid world and is accounted for the second busiest container port
users
in the US, after the Port of Los Angeles (POLA), which
adjoins with an extension of about 13 km2, it approximately
Port development
(water)
Noise Air quality generates $100 billion and provides more than 300’000 jobs.
In the last years, the container trades are reaching the highest
Energy level ever due to using a wide range of industrial electric
Water quality Air quality
consumption machines. POLB consists of 11 different piers as independent
microgrids including RESs such as PV array and wind
Dredging Garbage/port
Noise turbines, different types of loads based on electrical motors
Higher Environmental Priority

disposal waste
such as cranes, trucks, excavators and some other loaders,
Dredging Dredging Relationship with which increases the port energy demand [12].
operations operation port community There are two separate Points of Deliveries (PODs), with
the Southern California Edison (SCE) company, providing
Dust
Dredging
Ship waste energy for the POLB. The POLB has a daily peak of almost
disposal
100MW. The POLB includes an extensive electrical network
Port development Relationship with Port development that provides energy to all existed 11 piers, the total nominal
(land) port community (land) power of the whole port reaches almost 300 MVA. The SCE
has designed the main electrical substation as it needed,
Contaminated Energy
Climate change which has rated voltage of 66/12kV [13] as shown in Fig. 3.
land consumption

Habitat loss/
Dust Water quality
degradation

Port development Dredging

Traffic volume
(water) operation

Industrial Port development Garbage/port

effluent (land) waste

~2000 ~2010 ~2020

Fig. 2. Environmental priorities of ports in last twenty years [11].

The outline for this manuscript is given as follows. In the

next section, the Port of Long Beach (POLB) as a case study
with the details including electrical connections, electric
facilities, and potential of the RESs for each pier have been
described. The blockchain concept and different topologies
are discussed in section III. The proposed strategy for
Fig. 3. Single-line diagram of POLB power grid

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 It is an indisputable fact that induction machines used in Daily Radiation (kWh/m2/day)
7
electric loaders, have four cycles in each full operation, so
they can work as both motor and generator modes depending
on the speed and torque of machine. POLB is equipped with 5
these types of electric loaders and as a result, they can take
benefits of regenerated energy and inject to the microgrids 3
which can be accounted for one of the main RESs [14-15].
Generally, the POLB’s loads are categorized based on their 1
function as are shown in Fig. 4.
POLB Electric Facilities -1

Fig. 6. Monthly sun’s radiation in the POLB location.

• Civil Infrastructures • Common Services
- Technical buildings - Servers, meters and As energy storage systems are accounted for one of the
- Buildings for power electronic crucial equipment in the microgrids, the POLB uses three
shipbuilding activities interfaces
main energy storage systems namely, Battery Energy Storage
System (BESS), Flywheel Energy Storage System (FESS)
and Ultracapacitor (UC) based on needs. Generally, energy
• Container Terminal
- Cranes (STS, RTG) storages have different power and energy densities, for
• Cold Ironing
- Truck, excavators and instance, BESS has specific power of less than 500W/kg
other types of loaders while that reach 1500 and 10000 W/kg for FESS and UC,
respectively. However, specific energy of BESS can reach
Fig. 4. POLB Load diagram based on different application 200 Wh/kg, while that peak to about 15 and 100 for UC and
FESS, in array [16]. Consequently, BESS should be selected
Since DGs play a significant role in the microgrids in a case of lack of energy and FESS and UC should be used
organization the POLB includes the different type of RESs in in a case of lack of power [17-18].
each pier. There are some other RESs that can be installed in
the port such fuel cell, tidal turbine, and geothermal. RESs in III. BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY
the POLB can be categorized as two plans, installed sources Blockchain is accounted for a revolutionary technology
and future that are under processing as summarized in Tab II. that was generally introduced for the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.
Basically, that is named due to information blocks that are
TABLE II. RESS CAPACITY USED IN THE POLB
connected to each other in shape of chain. It is used wisely in
Potential Capacity (MW) various fields such as microgrids, IoT, shared EV charging
RES pier (s) Current Future pile and some other majors [19-20]. Especially in transaction
PV D, E, G, H 33 55 of energy in interconnected microgrids [21-22], the
Geothermal A, B, S 24 40 transaction between two microgrids will be represented as a
Wind F, J, T 18 30
block and sent to microgrid dispatching center (MDC) of
Tidal & Wave H, J, T 13 21
Fuel cell A, B, C, D, E, G 9 15 each microgrid, as it is clearly shown in Fig. 7. In the next
step, MDCs will validate the block before adding to the other
In this regard, Fig. 5 and 6 indicate geographical features block which are shaped as a chain. At the end the energy will
of wind speed and sun radiation, which lead the port’s transfer between microgrids in a secure way.
authorities to install PV panels and wind turbines as the main
RESs in the POLB. MG 1 wants to send energy The transaction is The transaction is
to MG 2 represented as a block broadcasted to MDCs
Average wind speed (m/s)
6
5
MG 1 MG 2
4
3
2 The MDCs validate the The block can be added to The energy moves
transaction blockchain from one to two
1
0

MG 1 MG 2

Fig. 5. Monthly wind speed of the POLB location. Fig.7. Process of energy transaction between two microgrids.

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 Generally, in energy management issues, blockchain is
mainly useful in two different aspects namely, assurance
enhancement between microgrids and transactive energy
strategy. Regarding to the security improvement, in the
conventional power grids, the distributed system operator
(DSO) preferred to distinguish databases of each microgrid
and connect them by a networked server, while in modern
grids which are based on blockchain technology, the DSO
prefers to implement a shared database which obtain data
from each microgrid and send comfortable orders to them
based on evaluation which has been processed [23-25].
As a result, the protection of shared database will be much
more simple and cheaper than distributed database condition
which will provide a secure smart grid based on blockchain
technology. That keeps data obtained from smart meters that
are altering continuously and are secured and protected by
cryptographic signature.
Fig. 8 interestingly reveals the main difference between
conventional connected microgrids based on DSO and
interconnected microgrids based on blockchain technology
due to the authority for the microgrid’s energy management.
MG 1 MG 2 MG 1
MDC 1
MDC 1 DB 1 MDC 2 DB 2
Shared database
based on blockchain
DSO
MG 3 MG 4
MG 3
MDC 3 DB 3 MDC 4 DB 4 MDC 3
(a)
Fig.8. Networked microgrids configurations based on DSO (a) and
blockchain technology (b).
In the conventional method Fig. 8 a, the DSO controls the
transaction of energy between microgrids and energy can be
transferred just in case of the DSO send the order. However,
blockchain-based microgrids, Fig.8 b, follow the instruction
provided in the shared database. In this regard, the shared
database contains optimized strategies for different scenarios
that are obtained from data collected from three different
phases, past, present, and future. These strategies prepare
appropriate orders for each microgrid to control optimally the
transaction of energy between microgrids.
IV. TRANSACTIVE ENERGY SYSTEM BASED ON
BLOCKCHAIN
Blockchain-based smart grids have some unique benefits
from both DSO and customer points of view. The two main
aspects of using blockchain technology in smart grids are
security of the system making networked microgrids more
reliable, and efficiency causing astonishing reduction in
system operation cost.
In this paper transactive energy, which is the second
benefit of networked microgrids based on blockchain, is
considered as the main topic. in this regard, there are three
MG 2 time-based stages that are running on the background of
smart grids based on blockchain. According to Fig. 9, entire
MDC 2 process of energy management based on blockchain strategy
is divided in three main stages namely, past, present and
future phases. In the first stage, general information such as
...
network configuration, presence of different loads and
... sources and power flow optimization will be carried out.
...
In the second stage, real-time phase, the consumption and
generation of loads and sources will be gathered into the
database and an energy consumption evaluation will be
MG 4
accomplished and optimal strategy will be considered
MDC 4
according to past phase dispatching results. Finally, in the last
(b) stage, future phase, market members settlement and financial
exchanges will be fulfilled before, comparison of future plans
and passed scenarios which reaches optimal energy
management strategy.

Loads Source Release optimal

Network attendance and attendance and Participation Market pre- Power flow generation/
configuration required power RES generation permission initialization optimization consumption
prediction Prediction results

Past Phase
Optimal
Saving passed Energy Collecting data
dispatch based
scenarios and State estimation consumption from smart
on past phase
dispatch results evaluation meters
results

Present Phase
Reconciling future
Market Financial plans and passed
settlement exchanges scenarios to reach
optimal strategies

Future Phase
Fig. 9. Schematic of information block of transactive energy based on blockchain technology.

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 Fig. 10 provides information regarding the suggested
platform for the POLB based on installing different
equipment in each pier. Piers coloured in orange are container
terminals, green piers are buck terminals, pink ones are liquid
terminals and purple piers are accounted for general purposes
such as passenger terminal. As it is clearly shown, all of
container terminals are equipped with different RESs, BESS,
FESS, UC, and local loads [26]. Each pier has independent
monitoring system obtaining and recording data before
sending information to the main database located in the
dispatching centre. The DSO will distribute power between
piers efficiently regarding the real-time generation and
consumption of each pier. For instance, in a case of extra
regenerated power by the cranes of one pier and need power
in another pier, exist power will satisfy loads requiring
power, and if there is not any unsatisfied load, the generated
power by the RESs will store in energy storage systems. For
instance, in a case of extra regenerated power by the cranes
of one pier and need power in another pier, exist power will
satisfy loads requiring power, and if there is not any
unsatisfied load, the generated power by the RESs will store
in energy storage systems. For instance, in a case of extra
regenerated power by the cranes of one pier and need power
in another pier, exist power will satisfy loads requiring
power, and if there is not any unsatisfied load, the generated
power by the RESs will store in energy storage systems.

Pier B

Pier C
Pier A Pier D Shared Server
Database

Pier S

Pier E

Pier T

Pier F Pier H

Pier G

Local Smart Meter and Dispatching Center Microgrids

Container Terminal Buck Terminal Liquid Terminal General Purpose Terminal Pier J

Fuel Cell BESS FESS UC Energy Storage

Tidal Turbine Wind Turbine Geothermal Unit PV panel Electric Loaders Station

Fig. 10. Overall scheme of POLB based on piers equipment and operation.

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 V. CONCLUSION
An advanced vision of electrical energy systems provides
for a new organization necessary for a complete satisfaction
of energy saving and high efficiency requirements. The
organization of the areas of use such as those of the ports
should have a single electrical management also with
different tenants of the activities included. In fact, the use of
a generation distributed from renewable sources is essential
for achieving a net zero energy situation only if all the energy
produced is always absorbed locally and in an organized way
with the load diagrams of the various activities. In practice,
the organization of all the tenants of a port in a common
electrical system is not easy. To achieve this goal, this paper
proposes a secure and efficient energy management system
based on blockchain technology gathering information from
smart meters, collecting in a database and finally, evaluating
them, before sending orders to the smart switches to conduct
power from sources to the loads efficiently, and organizing
appropriate strategies for the future plans. Moreover, it is
necessary to have a complete knowledge of the various
absorptions and of the possible load deferrals according to
the priorities. Therefore, the use of the blockchain can favour
a local organization for a commercial energy microgrid and
the start of a multi-step path towards a complete organization
of the port's electric microgrid. It is noticeable that, all data
will be transferred in a shape of connected chain that will be
accomplished step by step. As a result, this smart grid taking
benefit from blockchain technology causes a secure and
efficient system which has well-organized plan for any
scenario.
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