A Blockchain Consensus Mechanism for Distributed Electricity Trading
For distributed energy systems, PoE provides a cryptographically secured, incentive-compatible framework for decentralized value distribution without a central authority.
The paper proposes Proof of Energy (PoE), a blockchain consensus mechanism that ties block generation rights to real-world energy contributions, addressing decentralized coordination, fair settlement, trustworthy operation, and system optimization in distributed power systems. Case studies validate PoE across grid coordination, incentive fairness, and optimization efficiency.
Distributed power systems complement centralized grids by coordinating distributed energy resources (DERs) to achieve regional energy self-sufficiency. Scaling such systems raises four persistent challenges: decentralized coordination, fair economic settlement, trustworthy operation, and system optimization, all without a central authority. This paper proposes Proof of Energy (PoE), a blockchain consensus mechanism that addresses these challenges through cryptographically secured, contribution-proportional node selection. In PoE, block generation rights are tied directly to real-world energy contributions, enabling distributed consensus without centralized dispatch. An Energy Contribution Unit (ECU) model is introduced to map heterogeneous energy services onto a unified value metric via scarcity-weighted normalization. A Verifiable Random Function (VRF)-based proposal mechanism then ensures selection probability is strictly proportional to node contribution, preserving fairness and resisting manipulation. Case studies validate PoE across three dimensions: grid coordination, incentive fairness, and optimization efficiency. The result is a cryptographically secured, incentive-compatible framework for decentralized value distribution in energy systems.