Blockchain in Smart Grids: A Review on Different Use Cases

With the integration of Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things, the smart grid is being projected as a solution for the challenges regarding electricity supply in the future. However, security and privacy issues in the consumption and trading of electricity data pose serious challenges in the adoption of the smart grid. To address these challenges, blockchain technology is being researched for applicability in the smart grid. In this paper, important application areas of blockchain in the smart grid are discussed. One use case of each area is discussed in detail, suggesting a suitable blockchain architecture, a sample block structure and the potential blockchain technicalities employed in it. The blockchain can be used for peer-to-peer energy trading, where a credit-based payment scheme can enhance the energy trading process. Efficient data aggregation schemes based on the blockchain technology can be used to overcome the challenges related to privacy and security in the grid. Energy distribution systems can also use blockchain to remotely control energy flow to a particular area by monitoring the usage statistics of that area. Further, blockchain-based frameworks can also help in the diagnosis and maintenance of smart grid equipment. We also discuss several commercial implementations of blockchain in the smart grid. Finally, various challenges to be addressed for integrating these two technologies are discussed.

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A Survey of Authentication Schemes in the Internet of Things

International Journal of Smart Security Technologies ◽

10.4018/ijsst.2019010102 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 15-30 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Yasmine Labiod ◽

Abdelaziz Amara Korba ◽

Nacira Ghoualmi-Zine

Keyword(s):

Internet Of Things ◽

Security Requirements ◽

Security And Privacy ◽

The Internet ◽

Privacy And Security ◽

Depth Study ◽

Authentication Schemes ◽

Iot Devices ◽

Privacy Issues ◽

The Internet Of Things

In the recent years, the Internet of Things (IoT) has been widely deployed in different daily life aspects such as home automation, electronic health, the electric grid, etc. Nevertheless, the IoT paradigm raises major security and privacy issues. To secure the IoT devices, many research works have been conducted to counter those issues and discover a better way to remove those risks, or at least reduce their effects on the user's privacy and security requirements. This article mainly focuses on a critical review of the recent authentication techniques for IoT devices. First, this research presents a taxonomy of the current cryptography-based authentication schemes for IoT. In addition, this is followed by a discussion of the limitations, advantages, objectives, and attacks supported of current cryptography-based authentication schemes. Finally, the authors make in-depth study on the most relevant authentication schemes for IoT in the context of users, devices, and architecture that are needed to secure IoT environments and that are needed for improving IoT security and items to be addressed in the future.

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A Survey of How to Use Blockchain to Secure Internet of Things and the Stalker Attack

Security and Communication Networks ◽

10.1155/2018/9675050 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2018 ◽

pp. 1-27 ◽

Cited By ~ 62

Author(s):

Emanuel Ferreira Jesus ◽

Vanessa R. L. Chicarino ◽

Célio V. N. de Albuquerque ◽

Antônio A. de A. Rocha

Keyword(s):

Internet Of Things ◽

Main Chain ◽

Security And Privacy ◽

The Internet ◽

Privacy Concerns ◽

Blockchain Technology ◽

Transaction Models ◽

Financial Domain ◽

Privacy Issues ◽

The Internet Of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) is increasingly a reality today. Nevertheless, some key challenges still need to be given particular attention so that IoT solutions further support the growing demand for connected devices and the services offered. Due to the potential relevance and sensitivity of services, IoT solutions should address the security and privacy concerns surrounding these devices and the data they collect, generate, and process. Recently, the Blockchain technology has gained much attention in IoT solutions. Its primary usage scenarios are in the financial domain, where Blockchain creates a promising applications world and can be leveraged to solve security and privacy issues. However, this emerging technology has a great potential in the most diverse technological areas and can significantly help achieve the Internet of Things view in different aspects, increasing the capacity of decentralization, facilitating interactions, enabling new transaction models, and allowing autonomous coordination of the devices. The paper goal is to provide the concepts about the structure and operation of Blockchain and, mainly, analyze how the use of this technology can be used to provide security and privacy in IoT. Finally, we present the stalker, which is a selfish miner variant that has the objective of preventing a node to publish its blocks on the main chain.

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Bi-Directional Mutual Energy Trade between Smart Grid and Energy Districts Using Renewable Energy Credits

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s21093088 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (9) ◽

pp. 3088

Author(s):

Sana Rehman ◽

Bilal Khan ◽

Jawad Arif ◽

Zahid Ullah ◽

Abdullah J. Aljuhani ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Smart Grid ◽

Graphical Analysis ◽

Third Party ◽

Security And Privacy ◽

Central Authority ◽

Energy Trading ◽

Blockchain Technology ◽

Energy Trade ◽

Decentralized Energy ◽

And Control

A central authority, in a conventional centralized energy trading market, superintends energy and financial transactions. The central authority manages and controls transparent energy trading between producer and consumer, imposes a penalty in case of contract violation, and disburses numerous rewards. However, the management and control through the third party pose a significant threat to the security and privacy of consumers’/producers’ (participants) profiles. The energy transactions between participants involving central authority utilize users’ time, money, and impose a computational burden over the central controlling authority. The Blockchain-based decentralized energy transaction concept, bypassing the central authority, is proposed in Smart Grid (SG) by researchers. Blockchain technology braces the concept of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) energy transactions. This work encompasses the SolarCoin-based digital currency blockchain model for SG incorporating RE. Energy transactions from Prosumer (P) to Prosumer, Energy District to Energy District, and Energy District to SG are thoroughly investigated and analyzed in this work. A robust demand-side optimized model is proposed using Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) to maximize Prosumer Energy Surplus (PES), Grid revenue (GR), percentage energy transactions accomplished, and decreased Prosumer Energy Cost (PEC). Real-time averaged energy data of Australia are employed, and a piece-wise energy price mechanism is implemented in this work. The graphical analysis and tabular statistics manifest the efficacy of the proposed model.

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A Survey of Authentication Schemes in the Internet of Things

Research Anthology on Blockchain Technology in Business, Healthcare, Education, and Government ◽

10.4018/978-1-7998-5351-0.ch093 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1715-1732

Author(s):

Yasmine Labiod ◽

Abdelaziz Amara Korba ◽

Nacira Ghoualmi-Zine

Keyword(s):

Internet Of Things ◽

Security Requirements ◽

Security And Privacy ◽

The Internet ◽

Privacy And Security ◽

Depth Study ◽

Authentication Schemes ◽

Iot Devices ◽

Privacy Issues ◽

The Internet Of Things

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Fog computing security and privacy issues, open challenges, and blockchain solution: An overview

International Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering (IJECE) ◽

10.11591/ijece.v11i6.pp5081-5088 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (6) ◽

pp. 5081

Author(s):

Yehia Ibrahim Alzoubi ◽

Ahmad Al-Ahmad ◽

Ashraf Jaradat

Keyword(s):

Fog Computing ◽

Security Requirements ◽

Security And Privacy ◽

Privacy And Security ◽

Security Vulnerabilities ◽

Blockchain Technology ◽

Security Challenges ◽

Iot Devices ◽

The Impact ◽

Privacy Issues

<span lang="EN-US">Due to the expansion growth of the IoT devices, Fog computing was proposed to enhance the low latency IoT applications and meet the distribution nature of these devices. However, Fog computing was criticized for several privacy and security vulnerabilities. This paper aims to identify and discuss the security challenges for Fog computing. It also discusses blockchain technology as a complementary mechanism associated with Fog computing to mitigate the impact of these issues. The findings of this paper reveal that blockchain can meet the privacy and security requirements of fog computing; however, there are several limitations of blockchain that should be further investigated in the context of Fog computing.</span>

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Enabling privacy and security in Cloud of Things: Architecture, applications, security & privacy challenges

Applied Computing and Informatics ◽

10.1016/j.aci.2019.11.005 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Ado Adamou Abba Ari ◽

Olga Kengni Ngangmo ◽

Chafiq Titouna ◽

Ousmane Thiare ◽

Kolyang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Data Privacy ◽

Security And Privacy ◽

Growing Up ◽

Privacy And Security ◽

Privacy Concerns ◽

Security Issues ◽

Important Amount ◽

Iot Devices ◽

Privacy Issues ◽

The Internet Of Things

The Cloud of Things (IoT) that refers to the integration of the Cloud Computing (CC) and the Internet of Things (IoT), has dramatically changed the way treatments are done in the ubiquitous computing world. This integration has become imperative because the important amount of data generated by IoT devices needs the CC as a storage and processing infrastructure. Unfortunately, security issues in CoT remain more critical since users and IoT devices continue to share computing as well as networking resources remotely. Moreover, preserving data privacy in such an environment is also a critical concern. Therefore, the CoT is continuously growing up security and privacy issues. This paper focused on security and privacy considerations by analyzing some potential challenges and risks that need to be resolved. To achieve that, the CoT architecture and existing applications have been investigated. Furthermore, a number of security as well as privacy concerns and issues as well as open challenges, are discussed in this work.

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A Cost Analysis of Implementing a Blockchain Architecture in a Smart Grid Scenario Using Sidechains

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s20030843 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 20 (3) ◽

pp. 843 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Iago Sestrem Ochôa ◽

Luis Augusto Silva ◽

Gabriel de Mello ◽

Nuno M. Garcia ◽

Juan Francisco de Paz Santana ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cost Analysis ◽

Smart Grid ◽

Personal Information ◽

Security And Privacy ◽

Smart Contracts ◽

Privacy And Security ◽

Grid Systems ◽

Blockchain Technology ◽

Sustainable Power ◽

Information Today

Smart grid systems have become popular and necessary for the development of a sustainable power grid. These systems use different technologies to provide optimized services to the users of the network. Regarding computing, these systems optimize electrical services by processing a large amount of the data generated. However, privacy and security are essential in this kind of system. With a large amount of data generated, it is necessary to protect the privacy of users, because this data may reveal the users’ personal information. Today, blockchain technology has proven to be an efficient architecture for solving privacy and security problems in different scenarios. Over the years, different blockchain platforms have emerged, attempting to solve specific problems in different areas. However, the use of different platforms fragmented the market, which was no different in the smart grid scenario. This work proposes a blockchain architecture that uses sidechains to make the system scalable and adaptable. We used three blockchains to ensure privacy, security, and trust in the system. To universalize the proposed solution, we used the Open Smart Grid Protocol and smart contracts. The results show that architecture security and privacy are guaranteed, making it feasible for implementation in real systems; although scalability issues regarding the storage of the data generated still exist.

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