Toward a Decentralized Solar Peer-to-Peer Energy Trading as a Service for a Local Community Microgrid in Chile

Solar peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading is a promising approach that allows prosumers and consumers to exchange energy directly, which reduces dependence on the centralized power grid. However, implementing such a P2P energy trading system requires careful consideration of hardware, software, and communication networks to ensure smooth and secure energy transactions between participants. Few research works have addressed the technical implementations of P2P energy trading system. Furthermore, there are no comparisons between different energy trading architectures and/or configurations. To address this gap, this work aims to design and implement a decentralized Solar P2P energy trading platform (hardware/software) that allows local energy trading between prosumers and consumers in a rural microgrid in Chile, aiming at maximizing the utilization of distributed energy resources. The proposed platform will benefit from recent advances in the Internet of Things (IoT), communication networks, cloud services, and blockchain technologies. A decentralized market architecture has been developed and implemented, in a laboratory environment, together with a comparative analysis with respect to communication network performance, considering different wired/wireless communication technologies. This work contributes towards the transition towards a decentralized energy market, facilitating the adoption of renewable energy sources, and empowering local communities.