A Blockchain-Supported Framework for Charging Management of Electric Vehicles

Marina Dorokhova, Jérémie Vianin, Jean-Marie Alder, Christophe Ballif, Nicolas Wyrsch and David Wannier
Additional contact information
Marina Dorokhova: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), STI IMT PV-LAB, CH-2002 Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Jérémie Vianin: Research Institute of Information Systems—Easilab, HES-SO Valais/Wallis, CH-3960 Sierre, Switzerland
Jean-Marie Alder: Research Institute of Information Systems—Easilab, HES-SO Valais/Wallis, CH-3960 Sierre, Switzerland
Christophe Ballif: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), STI IMT PV-LAB, CH-2002 Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Nicolas Wyrsch: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), STI IMT PV-LAB, CH-2002 Neuchâtel, Switzerland
David Wannier: Research Institute of Information Systems—Easilab, HES-SO Valais/Wallis, CH-3960 Sierre, Switzerland

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 21, 1-32

Abstract: Profound changes driven by decarbonization, decentralization, and digitalization are disrupting the energy industry, bringing new challenges to its key stakeholders. In the attempt to address the climate change issue, increasing penetration of renewables and mobility electrification augment the complexity of the electric grid, thus calling for new management approaches to govern energy exchanges while ensuring reliable and secure operations. The emerging blockchain technology is regarded as one of the most promising solutions to respond to the matter in a decentralized, efficient, fast, and secure way. In this work, we propose an Ethereum-based charging management framework for electric vehicles (EVs), tightly interlinked with physical and software infrastructure and implemented in a real-world demonstration site. With a specifically designed solidity-based smart contract governing the charging process, the proposed framework enables secure and reliable accounting of energy exchanges in a network of trustless peers, thus facilitating the EVs’ deployment and encouraging the adoption of blockchain technology for everyday tasks such as EV charging through private and semi-private charging infrastructure. The results of a multi-actor implementation case study in Switzerland demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed blockchain framework and highlight its potential to reduce costs in a typical EV charging business model. Moreover, the study shows that the suggested framework can speed up the charging and billing processes for EV users, simplify the access to energy markets for charging station owners, and facilitate the interaction between the two through specifically designed mobile and web applications. The implementation presented in this paper can be used as a guideline for future blockchain applications for EV charging and other smart grid projects.

Keywords: blockchain; electric vehicles; Ethereum; electric vehicle charging; smart community (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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