| Abstract [eng] |
This master's thesis examines the application possibilities of blockchain technology and cryptographic tokens for electricity pricing and trading. The relevance of this research is determined by the rapidly growing number of prosumers in Lithuania, which doubled in 2023, while the amount of electricity supplied to the grid increased almost threefold. Current accounting systems, such as net metering and net billing, have significant drawbacks, primarily long settlement periods reaching approximately thirty days, as well as centralized management that limits the opportunities for small producers to directly participate in the market. The aim of this work is to propose and evaluate an electricity trading model based on the use of cryptographic tokens in blockchain. To achieve this goal, a comprehensive analysis of scientific literature was conducted, the regulatory environment was examined, and existing blockchain energy projects were analyzed. The analysis of existing projects revealed important insights: for instance, the Lithuanian-origin WePower project encountered a critical Ethereum blockchain scalability problem, where theoretically uploading all Estonian data would have taken fourteen years. Meanwhile, local projects such as Switzerland's Quartierstrom achieved tangible results, nearly doubling the community's energy self-sufficiency. Based on this analysis, a local microgrid model was developed, targeting a neighborhood of five hundred to one thousand households. The model is based on the Polygon Layer 2 blockchain, which ensures sufficient transaction throughput and low fees. The system consists of three main smart contract components: an energy token where one token corresponds to one kilowatt-hour, a meter registry, and a peer-to-peer trading platform. The results of the legal analysis showed that European Union directives already provide for a citizen energy community operating model, which provides a legal basis for the proposed system. Prototype testing and experimental analysis revealed significant economic advantages. The cost of a single transaction on the blockchain amounts to only about three euro cents, while in the traditional system an analogous operation costs from fifty cents to two euros. Settlement time is reduced from thirty days to less than one second. System throughput reaches approximately two hundred sixty transactions per second, which is thirty-one times more than would be needed to serve all Lithuanian prosumers. All transactions performed during the experiment were successfully executed, and the system automatically balanced energy supply and demand among different types of participants. The results of this work confirm that blockchain technology can significantly increase the efficiency of electricity trading, reduce operational costs, and provide prosumers with greater control and transparency. The microgrid architecture also minimizes transmission losses and ensures reliability of energy supply even in the event of main grid failure. Although practical implementation would require addressing infrastructure integration and user interface issues, the conducted research provides solid evidence that the proposed model is not only theoretically sound but also practically functional. |
