ABSTRACT
The advances in Intelligent Smart Meters, the Internet of Things (IoT), and communication technologies converge the conventional power grids into Smart Electric Grids. In the conventional one, the communication was unilateral. However, in a Smart Electric Grid platform, all system members, from different generating units to different consumers, can communicate bilaterally in real-time via modern technologies. At the same time, the new Smart Electric Grid has some challenges. There might be a chance for personal information leakage, cyber-attack, and managing small customers or prosumers are the few crucial challenges in Smart Grid. Introducing Blockchain technology to the Smart Electric Grid is an attractive solution to the problems mentioned earlier. The Blockchain platform comprises cryptographic security measures, a decentralized consensus mechanism, and a distributed ledger. In the present work, protection schemes of the DC microgrids based upon Blockchain technology are discussed in detail. Compared with AC microgrids, DC microgrids provide more efficiency and are more suited for Renewable energy sources. It is due to the reduction in conversion stages 136and the lack of skin effect. The differential protection scheme along with a backup Blockchain system for DC microgrid is proposed. Detection and isolation of fault with and without cyber-attack are explained with simulation results. Differential protection schemes detect and isolate the high impedance faults, and the Blockchain backup system enhances the trustworthiness of the proposed scheme by mitigating the communication failure impact.
