JP7498491B2 - Energy trading support system, energy trading support method and program - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an energy trading support system, an energy trading support method, and a program.

In recent years, blockchain technology (distributed ledger technology), which uses hash functions and public key cryptography to ensure the authenticity of transaction information, is being used in a variety of fields. As an example, in cryptocurrency transactions, cryptocurrency transaction information (hereinafter referred to as "transactions") is broadcast to all terminals that use cryptocurrency. The authenticity of the transmitted transactions is verified by terminals called miners, and if approved, they are compiled into blocks and recorded in a ledger called a blockchain. In cryptocurrency transactions, miners perform a calculation process called mining, and then
By adding blocks to the blockchain, transactions are prevented from being tampered with.

Patent Literature 1 discloses a technology that uses a blockchain to increase the degree of assurance of authenticity of transaction information, while Patent Literature 2 proposes a technology that uses electronic signature technology to realize a mechanism for certifying that electricity is green.

JP 2017-207860 A JP 2011-175556 A

By the way, in recent years, renewable energy electricity (hereinafter referred to as "renewable energy electricity") has become a hot topic among companies and local governments.
The need to actively utilize the CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) is on the rise. This is likely due to the fact that reporting to the CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project), which discloses companies' efforts to combat climate change, is directly linked to shareholder evaluations, particularly by institutional investors.
Here, the requirement for using renewable energy electricity is "traceability (source identification),"
Such technology does not yet exist. In other words, once the generated electricity enters the power network (power transmission network), it becomes assimilated with other electricity, making it impossible to identify the source of the electricity.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a technology that can ensure the traceability of renewable energy electricity.

The main invention of the present invention for solving the above problem is a system for supporting electricity trading between a plurality of power plants and a plurality of consumers, comprising: a supply amount acquisition unit for acquiring, for each of the power plants, a supply amount of electricity generated at the power plant and transmitted to a predetermined power network; a token issuing unit for issuing a token corresponding to the supply amount to a first account of the power plant in a blockchain; a demand amount acquisition unit for acquiring, for each of the consumers, a demand amount received from the power network; a transmission amount determination unit for determining a transmission amount to be deemed to have been sent from the power plant to the consumer for each pair of the power plant and the consumer; and a transaction issuing unit for issuing, for each of the power plants, a transaction to transfer an amount of the tokens corresponding to the transmission amount for each of the consumers, with each of the second accounts of the power plant and the pair being the destination and the first account being the source.

Other problems and solutions disclosed in this application will be made clear in the description of the preferred embodiments of the invention and the drawings.

According to the present invention, it is possible to ensure the traceability of renewable energy electricity.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing a process for selling electric power generated by a power generation device. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of the overall configuration of an energy trading support system according to an embodiment of the present invention. A diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of a computer used in the management server 20, the worker device 30, the nodes that form the blockchain network 10, etc. FIG. 2 illustrates an example of the software configuration of a management server 20. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a result of matching by a matching processing unit 213. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of the software configuration of a worker device 30. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the operation of the energy trading support system according to the present embodiment.

<Summary of the Invention>
The present invention will be described below with reference to the preferred embodiments thereof.
[Item 1]
A system for supporting electricity trading between a plurality of power plants and a plurality of electricity consumers, comprising:
A supply amount acquisition unit that acquires, for each of the power plants, an amount of power generated at the power plant and transmitted to a predetermined power network;
A token issuing unit that issues tokens according to the supply amount to a first account of the power plant in a blockchain;
A demand amount acquisition unit that acquires a demand amount of power received from the power network for each of the consumers;
a power transmission amount determination unit that determines a power transmission amount to be regarded as having been transmitted from the power plant to the consumer for each pair of the power plant and the consumer;
a transaction issuing unit that issues a transaction for each of the power plants, the transaction destination being each of the second accounts of the multiple consumers that are paired with the power plant and the first account being the source, to transfer an amount of the tokens corresponding to the amount of electricity transmitted to each of the consumers;
An energy trading support system comprising:
[Item 2]
2. The energy trading support system according to claim 1,
The system includes a server device and a plurality of worker devices,
The worker device includes the transaction issuing unit,
the server device includes a request transmission unit that distributes requests specifying the power plant, the plurality of consumers, and the amount of the tokens corresponding to the amount of electricity transmitted to the consumers and transmits the requests to the plurality of worker devices;
the transaction issuing unit issues the transaction in response to the request;
An energy trading support system comprising:
[Item 3]
3. The energy trading support system according to claim 2,
the worker devices are deployed in a plurality of regions;
An energy trading support system comprising:
[Item 4]
4. The energy trading support system according to claim 1,
the transaction issuing unit issues a plurality of transactions in parallel;
An energy trading support system comprising:
[Item 5]
1. A method for supporting electricity trading between a plurality of power plants and a plurality of electricity consumers, comprising:
The computer
obtaining, for each of the power plants, a supply amount of electricity generated at the power plant and transmitted to a predetermined power network;
A token issuing unit that issues tokens according to the supply amount to a first account of the power plant in a blockchain;
Obtaining a demand for electricity received from the power network for each of the consumers;
a power transmission amount determination unit that determines a power transmission amount to be regarded as having been transmitted from the power plant to the consumer for each pair of the power plant and the consumer;
issuing a transaction for each of the power plants to transfer an amount of the tokens corresponding to the amount of electricity transmitted to each of the power plants, with each of the second accounts of the consumers paired with the power plant as a destination and the first account as a source;
The present invention relates to an energy trading support method.
[Item 6]
A program for supporting electricity trading between a plurality of power plants and a plurality of electricity consumers,
On the computer,
obtaining, for each of the power plants, a supply amount of electricity generated at the power plant and transmitted to a predetermined power network;
A token issuing unit that issues tokens according to the supply amount to a first account of the power plant in a blockchain;
Obtaining a demand for electricity received from the power network for each of the consumers;
a power transmission amount determination unit that determines a power transmission amount to be regarded as having been transmitted from the power plant to the consumer for each pair of the power plant and the consumer;
issuing a transaction for each of the power plants to transfer an amount of the tokens corresponding to the amount of electricity transmitted to each of the power plants, with each of the second accounts of the consumers paired with the power plant as a destination and the first account as a source;
A program for executing the above.

<Details of the embodiment>
Hereinafter, a system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
＜Overview＞
Fig. 1 is an image diagram showing the process of selling electricity generated by a power generation device. In recent years, the liberalization of electricity trading has progressed, and for example, as shown in Fig. 1, it has become possible to sell electricity generated by multiple power plants 1 to multiple consumers 2 via a power transmission network 3. A power purchase agreement (PPA) is concluded between a power plant and a consumer (or an electric utility intervening between them).
However, under the current circumstances, it is difficult to trace the electricity generated by individual power plants once it enters the electricity transmission network 3. Therefore, it is difficult to realize a PPA when using the electricity transmission network.

The electricity trading support system of this embodiment realizes electricity trading with traceability, i.e., a virtual PPA, between a plurality of power plants 1 and a plurality of consumers 2. Some consumers 2 have a need to procure electricity from a specific power plant 1, such as a power plant 1 in their hometown, a power plant 1 in a disaster area, or a power plant 1 of a well-known company. The electricity trading support system of this embodiment virtually realizes electricity procurement from such a specific power plant 1.

Specifically, a token (for example, 1 kWh = 1 token. The number of tokens per 1 kWh can be set arbitrarily) corresponding to the amount of power generated by the power plant 1 (in this embodiment, this indicates the amount of power transmitted to the power transmission network 3) is issued and registered in the account of the power plant 1 in the blockchain.
The account of consumer 2 can be identified, for example, by the wallet that each of them possesses.

Then, matching is performed between the amount of power received by the consumer 2 from the power transmission network 3 and the amount of power generated by the power plant 1 and transmitted to the power transmission network 3. For example, a virtual PPA where the consumer 2 receives power supply from a specific power plant 1 is managed and used. For example, for each predetermined unit time (which can be 15 minutes or 30 minutes, for example), the amount of power (power generation amount) generated by the power plant 1 and supplied to the power transmission network 3 and the amount of power (demand amount) received by the consumer 2 from the power transmission network 3 are obtained, and the PPA between the consumer 2 and the same power plant 1 is calculated.
The amount of power generated by the power plant 1 can be apportioned among a plurality of consumers 2 connected to the PA, and the amount of power (supply amount) supplied from the power plant 1 to the consumers 2 can be calculated. The apportionment can be done, for example, as follows:
This can be done at the rate of the amount of electricity contracted in the PPA.

On the other hand, on the blockchain network, tokens equivalent to the supply amount are sent from the account of the power plant 1 to the account of the consumer 2. This makes it possible to virtually trace the electricity transaction, and to understand that the electricity provided by a specific power plant 1 has been virtually sold directly to a specific consumer 2. This creates a virtual PP.
A can be realized.

<System Overview>
2 is a diagram showing an example of the overall configuration of an energy trading support system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The energy trading support system of this embodiment includes a blockchain network 10, a management server 20, and a plurality of worker devices 30. The blockchain network 10, the management server 20, and the plurality of worker devices 30 are communicatively connected to each other via a communication network. The communication network is, for example, the Internet, and is constructed by a public telephone line network, a mobile phone line network, a wireless communication path, Ethernet (registered trademark), or the like.

The blockchain network 10 is composed of multiple computer nodes that are communicatively connected to each other via P2P (Peer to Peer) communication, and manages a blockchain that records token transactions as transactions. Note that the configuration of the blockchain network 10 is assumed to be that used in general blockchains, and detailed explanations will be omitted here.

The management server 20 is a computer that manages the history of transactions related to the virtual PPA between the power plant 1 and the consumer 2, and is realized by, for example, a personal computer, a workstation, or a virtual computer using cloud computing.
As described above, the flow of electricity related to the virtual PPA is managed through the blockchain network 1.
0 and manages it as a token flow.

The worker device 30 is a computer that issues transactions, and is realized by, for example, a personal computer, a workstation, or a virtual computer using cloud computing. A plurality of worker devices 30 are deployed. The worker devices 30 are also deployed in a plurality of regions (areas in which computers are deployed). In this embodiment, the worker device 30 issues a transaction in response to a request from the management server 20 and transmits the transaction to the blockchain network 10.

In the energy trading support system of this embodiment, when issuing transactions corresponding to transactions related to virtual PPAs, multiple worker devices 30 issue transactions in parallel. In normal trading management, transactions are issued sequentially in series, but by issuing transactions simultaneously using the worker devices 30 in parallel as in this embodiment, it is possible to efficiently issue a large number of transactions corresponding to a large number of transactions.

3 is a diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of a computer used in the management server 20, the worker device 30, the nodes forming the blockchain network 10, etc. Note that the illustrated configuration is an example, and the computer may have other configurations.
CPU 101, memory 102, storage device 103, communication interface 104, input device 1
The computer includes an input/output device 105 and an output device 106. The storage device 103 stores various data and programs, and is, for example, a hard disk drive, a solid state drive, or a flash memory. The communication interface 104 is an interface for connecting to a communication network, and is, for example, an adapter for connecting to Ethernet (registered trademark), a modem for connecting to a public telephone line network, a wireless communication device for wireless communication, a US serial communication device for serial communication, etc.
B (Universal Serial Bus) connector, RS232C connector, etc.
Reference numeral 5 denotes devices for inputting data, such as a keyboard, a mouse, a touch panel, a button, a microphone, etc. An output device 106 denotes devices for outputting data, such as a display, a printer, a speaker, etc.

4 is a diagram showing an example of the software configuration of the management server 20. The management server 20 includes a demand amount acquiring unit 211, a power generation amount acquiring unit 212, a matching processing unit 213, a request sending unit 214, and a request sending unit 215.
14, a supplier storage unit 231.
The matching processing unit 213 and the request transmission unit 214 are implemented by the CPU 1 in the management server 20.
01 is realized by reading out a program stored in the storage device 103 into the memory 102 and executing it, and the procurement source memory unit 231 can be realized as part of the memory area provided by the memory 102 and the storage device 103 of the management server 20.

The demand amount acquisition unit 211 acquires the amount of power demanded by the consumer 2.
The demand amount acquiring unit 211 can acquire the amount of demand for electricity received from the electricity transmission network 3 from a smart meter installed in the residence, factory, store, or other facility of the consumer 2.
The demand amount is acquired for each predetermined unit time (for example, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, etc.).

The power generation amount acquiring unit 212 acquires the amount of power generated by the power plant 1. The power generation amount acquiring unit 212 can acquire the amount of power generated (the amount of power transmitted from the power plant 1 to the power transmission network 3) from, for example, a smart meter installed in the power plant 1. The power generation amount acquiring unit 212 acquires the amount of power generated for each predetermined unit time.

The supplier storage unit 231 stores information (hereinafter referred to as supplier information) that associates a consumer 2 with a power plant 1 that is a supplier of power related to the virtual PPA of the consumer 2. The supplier information may include the power plant 1 and the contracted amount of power in association with the consumer 2. The supplier information may include a priority order of the power plant 1 corresponding to the consumer 2.

The matching processing unit 213 performs matching between the power plant 1 and the consumer 2. The matching processing unit 213 can determine the power plant 1, the consumer 2, and the supply amount of the power generation amount supplied to the consumer 2 based on the demand amount acquired by the demand amount acquisition unit 211, the power generation amount acquired by the power generation amount acquisition unit 212, and the supplier information.
For each power plant 1, the supplier information corresponding to the power plant 1 can be read out, and the amount of power generation can be apportioned using the contracted power amount of the read supplier information to calculate the supply amount to the consumer 2 of the supplier information. Fig. 5 is a diagram showing an example of the matching result by the matching processing unit 213. As in the example of Fig. 5, the supply power can be calculated for a pair of the power plant 1 and the consumer 2.

The request sending unit 214 performs processing for issuing a transaction for transferring tokens according to the matching result. In this embodiment, in order for the worker device 30 to issue a transaction, the request sending unit 214 sends a request to the worker device 30 including information (hereinafter referred to as transaction information) that associates the power plant 1, the consumer 2, and the supply amount from the power plant 1 to the consumer 2.
The request transmission unit 214 selects the power plant 1 and transmits the matched power plant 1 and the consumer 2
Among the pairs, the ones corresponding to the selected power plant 1 are extracted, and all the extracted pairs are combined,
The request can include a power plant 1, multiple consumers 2 to which the power plant 1 will supply power, and the amount of supply to each consumer 2.

6 is a diagram illustrating an example of the software configuration of the worker device 30. The worker device 30 includes a request receiving unit 311 and a transaction issuing unit 312.

The request receiving unit 311 receives the above-mentioned request from the management server 20.

The transaction issuing unit 312 issues a transaction in response to the request and transmits it to the blockchain network 10. As described above, the request includes, in association with the power plant 1, a plurality of consumers 2 to which the power plant 1 will provide electricity, and the consumers 2
The amount of power supply to each of the consumers 2 is included in the transaction data. The transaction issuing unit 312 issues a so-called 1:N transaction in which the account of one power plant 1 is used as the source and the accounts of multiple consumers 2 are used as the destination, and a number of tokens corresponding to the amount of power supply to each consumer 2 is sent to the blockchain network 5. Note that the blockchain network 5 is assumed to be an implementation system capable of processing 1:N transactions. This makes it possible to compile transactions related to the virtual PPA for all electricity destinations (consumers 2) from the power plant 1 and issue a 1:N transaction for transferring the corresponding tokens.

<Operation>
FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the energy trading support system of this embodiment.

The management server 20 matches the power plants 1 with the consumers 2 (S321), aggregates transactions corresponding to each power plant 1 from the matching results (see FIG. 5) (S322), and distributes requests including transaction information extracted from the matching results corresponding to one power plant 1 to the worker devices 30 (S323).
For example, the management server 20 creates a request for each of the multiple power plants 1,
The created request can be sent to different worker devices 30 .

In response to the request, the worker device 30 issues a 1:N transaction in which the account of one of the power plants 1 that has been set is set as the source, the account of the consumer 2 is set as the destination, and the amount of tokens to be transferred corresponding to the amount of supplied power is set for each of the multiple consumers 2, and transmits the transaction to the blockchain network 10 (S324).
).

As described above, the energy trading support system of this embodiment can realize a virtual PPA by matching a plurality of power plants 1 with a plurality of consumers 2.
By managing tokens corresponding to transactions related to A on the blockchain network 10, it becomes possible to manage bilateral electricity transactions in a manner that makes them difficult to tamper with. Furthermore, according to the electricity trading support system of this embodiment, electricity trading is carried out with one power plant 1 as the supply source and multiple consumers 2 as the supply destinations, and by issuing a corresponding 1-to-N transaction, transactions on the blockchain network 10 can be processed efficiently. Furthermore, since transactions can be issued by distributed worker devices 30, the processing load on the management server 20 that performs matching processing can be reduced,
This enables efficient transaction issuance processing, thereby shortening the time required for transaction issuance. In addition, by distributing the worker devices 30 across multiple regions, it is possible to avoid delays in transaction processing due to network loads.

Although the present embodiment has been described above, the above embodiment is intended to facilitate understanding of the present invention, and is not intended to limit the present invention. The present invention may be modified or improved without departing from the spirit of the present invention, and equivalents thereof are also included in the present invention.

Reference Signs List 1 Power plant 2 Recipient 3 Power transmission network 10 Blockchain network 20 Management server 30 Worker device 211 Demand amount acquisition unit 212 Power generation amount acquisition unit 213 Matching processing unit 214 Request transmission unit 231 Supplier storage unit 311 Request reception unit 312 Transaction issuing unit

Claims (5)

A system for supporting electricity trading between a plurality of power generation facilities and a plurality of consumers,
A supply amount acquisition unit that acquires, for each of the power generation facilities, an amount of power generated at the power generation facility and transmitted to a predetermined power network;
a token issuing unit that issues tokens according to the supply amount to a first account of the power generation facility in a blockchain;
A demand amount acquisition unit that acquires a demand amount of power received from the power network for each of the consumers;
a power transmission amount determination unit that determines a power transmission amount to be regarded as having been transmitted from the power generation facility to the consumer for each pair of the power generation facility and the consumer;
a transaction issuing unit that issues a single transaction to the blockchain for each of the power generation facilities, the transaction destination being each of the second accounts of the multiple consumers that are paired with the power generation facility and the first account being the source, and the transaction transfers an amount of the tokens corresponding to the amount of electricity transmitted to each of the consumers;
The transaction issuing unit is realized by a worker device,
Each of the worker devices issues a plurality of the transactions simultaneously and in parallel;
An energy trading support system comprising: 2. The energy trading support system according to claim 1,
The present invention is configured to include a server device,
The server device includes a request transmission unit that distributes requests that specify the power generation facility, the plurality of consumers, and the amount of the tokens corresponding to the amount of electricity transmission corresponding to the consumers and transmits the requests to the plurality of worker devices;
the transaction issuing unit issues the transaction in response to the request;
An energy trading support system comprising: 3. The energy trading support system according to claim 2,
the worker devices are deployed in a plurality of regions;
An energy trading support system comprising: A method for supporting electricity trading between a plurality of power generation facilities and a plurality of electricity consumers, comprising:
The computer
A step of acquiring, for each of the power generation facilities, a supply amount of the power generated at the power generation facility and transmitted to a predetermined power network;
issuing a token according to the supply amount to a first account of the power generation facility in a blockchain;
Obtaining a demand for electricity received from the power network for each of the consumers;
determining an amount of electricity transmitted from the power generation facility to the consumer for each pair of the power generation facility and the consumer;
A step of simultaneously and in parallel issuing a single transaction to the blockchain for each of the power generation facilities, the transaction transferring an amount of the tokens corresponding to the amount of electricity transmitted for each of the consumers from the first account to each of the second accounts, the amount of the tokens being destinations of each of the second accounts of the consumers paired with the power generation facility and the first account being source;
The present invention relates to an energy trading support method. A program for supporting electricity trading between a plurality of power generation facilities and a plurality of consumers,
On the computer,
A step of acquiring, for each of the power generation facilities, a supply amount of the power generated at the power generation facility and transmitted to a predetermined power network;
issuing a token according to the supply amount to a first account of the power generation facility in a blockchain;
Obtaining a demand for electricity received from the power network for each of the consumers;
determining an amount of electricity transmitted from the power generation facility to the consumer for each pair of the power generation facility and the consumer;
issuing, simultaneously and in parallel, a single transaction to the blockchain for each of the power generation facilities, with each of the second accounts of the multiple consumers paired with the power generation facility as a destination and the first account as a source, to transfer an amount of the tokens corresponding to the amount of electricity transmitted for each of the consumers from the first account to each of the second accounts;
A program for executing.

Images