Blockchain Enabled Data Transmission for Energy Imbalance Market

Due to the increasing penetration of renewable energies, the energy imbalance market (EIM) is proposed to better facilitate the real time supply demand balance in the power system, by rewarding the market participants with better forecasts for the market conditions (i.e., the mismatch in the system). Together with many other financial instruments in the electricity sector, EIM calls for the market participants to strive for improving their forecast abilities. This increases the need for a data market in place. However, data market, compared with conventional commodity markets, has numerous unique impediments, such as distrust and data mutability issues. To tackle these challenges, we design blockchain enabled data transmission for centralized and decentralized EIM, respectively. We submit that although decentralized market is often a trade off between autonomy and market efficiency, there are conditions when decentralized market and centralized EIM achieve the same efficiency. Numerical studies further suggest, even when the conditions are violated, the efficiency loss in the decentralized EIM is still acceptable.