Blockchain Based Metering and Billing System Proposal with Privacy Protection for the Electric Network

Abstract

Measurement of energy especially electricity consumption becomes an issue in big cities. Electricity usage monitoring is becoming more crucial and there is a need for the instant view of active energy usage. Solutions like smart grids are possible. Smart grids give a view in macro-level, there is also a need of a micro-level view. We mean a small region's or customer's usage when we mean micro-level view. The privacy of the personal data and the user's trust in the system should also be considered in these scenarios. This study aims to propose such an alternative system which uses blockchain technology and Internet of Things (IoT) devices for the metering and billing of the customer for the electric network. The trust and privacy issues are aimed to be solved. Blockchain can provide safer and more transparent solutions with its decentralized structure. Raspberry Pi is used to simulate metering, Hyperledger Fabric is selected as a blockchain system. A scalable and energy efficient energy tracking system with blockchain and IoT devices is proposed. A prototype system is formed and the possible usage scenario is simulated on the prototype.