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Research and Design of Smart Power Platform Based on the Integration of Edge Computing and Blockchain | Science & Technology Review

Research and Design of Smart Power Platform Based on the Integration of Edge Computing and Blockchain | Science & Technology Review

In recent years, the power industry has vigorously carried out the construction of smart grids, and the integration and application of new technologies has become the development trend of smart grids. Based on the actual business needs of the power consumption side of the power grid, this paper designs a smart power platform based on the integration of edge computing and blockchain, and uses blockchain technology to empower edge computing to achieve collaboration, security and trustworthiness, and data sharing. The overall technical architecture of the smart power platform and the specific technical architecture of the cloud, edge edge node and edge blockchain are expounded. On the basis of completing the design of the platform architecture, the specific business logic of intelligent cost control, multi-party electricity bill reconciliation and smart station area in the electricity consumption platform was sorted out, and the corresponding design scheme and implementation process were proposed. The platform can meet the needs of lean power consumption management such as high real-time electricity fee calculation and electricity consumption inspection, and better serve the construction of a modern power supply service system and a diversified and interactive power consumption system.

In recent years, driven by the growth of energy and power demand, China's power grid has experienced rapid development from traditional power grid to modern power grid, from isolated power grid to cross-regional large-scale interconnected power grid, and has now entered a new stage of smart grid development. The smart grid connects the power generation, transmission, distribution, and consumption of the traditional power grid, as well as various terminal electrical equipment and other energy-using facilities, to form a digital network integrated intelligent system that shares information. Smart grids can not only provide reliable and efficient power security, but also be compatible with the access of various devices, and the flexible interaction between the power grid and multiple agents will be further strengthened.

In order to support the smooth operation and information exchange of power generation, transmission, substation, distribution, and electricity consumption of smart grids, key technologies such as new transmission and distribution system technology, advanced communication technology, distributed energy management technology, advanced metering system and demand-side management technology have emerged and developed rapidly. On the power consumption side, with the development of emerging business applications such as distributed energy trading, multi-energy complementation, carbon emissions, and carbon trading, higher requirements are put forward for data collection and real-time computing, data rights confirmation, and demand response.

At present, the power grid platform system has problems such as high data storage pressure, large number of interfaces and inconsistent types, complex data permission management, and long audit process. In terms of business applications, it is difficult to break through higher real-time electricity cost calculations, and it is difficult to carry out lean applications such as power consumption inspection, line loss analysis, and voltage quality monitoring, and the support capacity of digital services is insufficient. In the context of massive data growth, how to ensure that the power collection system can be collected, stored, calculated, used and managed, it is urgent to use emerging technologies.

Edge computing refers to a new computing model that performs computing at the edge of the network, including downstream data from cloud services and upstream data from Internet of Everything services. Edge computing is one of the best ways to solve the problem of data surge in the power grid, and has begun to be applied to scenarios such as substations, distribution networks, energy storage, and power management systems.

Blockchain is a new application model that comprehensively uses a variety of computer technologies such as distributed data storage, point-to-point transmission, consensus algorithms, encryption algorithms, etc., with distributed high redundancy storage, time series data cannot be tampered with and forged, decentralized credit, self-executing smart contracts, security and privacy protection, etc. At present, pilot applications have been carried out in many aspects, such as power trading, renewable energy consumption, demand-side response, and trusted sharing of power grid data.

Therefore, in the construction of the smart electricity platform, the integration of marketing metering business, edge computing and blockchain new technologies can realize the needs of lean power management such as high real-time electricity cost calculation, power consumption inspection, line loss analysis, and voltage quality monitoring, so as to be better applied to the construction of a modern power supply service system and a diverse and interactive power consumption system.

1. Research and design of smart power platform architecture

1.1 Overall technical solutions

The overall design idea of the smart power platform is to integrate blockchain technology and edge computing on the traditional platform, transform the original centralized mode to a decentralized mode, reduce the cloud computing load and network pressure by sinking the collection and computing pressure, and improve the ability of electricity consumption data collection and efficient application. Blockchain is used to empower edge computing collaboration, security and trustworthiness, and data sharing (Figure 1). By integrating edge computing and blockchain, the platform has the following advantages to effectively support the lean application of the steady-state business of electricity side marketing metering and meet the application needs of emerging businesses in the future. (1) Blockchain and business applications share edge computing nodes, and blockchain nodes and applications are quickly deployed on edge computing nodes in the form of software, and open capabilities on the cloud can also be invoked; Edge computing is close to the user side, and frequently used data is cached in the edge nodes, improving communication efficiency and reducing communication latency. (2) Blockchain provides trust for edge computing, and the introduction of blockchain services in edge computing can realize the collaboration between different subjects, provide a neutral, credible and easy-to-use "information + trust" platform for multiple subjects, and realize the more efficient circulation and organic integration of production factors and resources among different subjects, and produce the effect from point to surface. (3) With the help of blockchain services superimposed on edge nodes, the islands between different edges and between "end-edge-network-cloud" parties can be broken up, so as to realize the connection of information and value, and generate cross-network synergy. (4) Blockchain can help establish the integrity assurance and anti-counterfeiting of edge computing systems, and can also help realize decentralized authentication between "end-edge-network-cloud" parties; In addition, edge computing nodes provide computing, network, and storage resources for various services and third-party applications running on them, and terminals, data, and capabilities can also be used as public shared resources and open to multiple applications, all of which can be traded through blockchain applications carried on the edge computing platform to give full play to their value.

Research and Design of Smart Power Platform Based on the Integration of Edge Computing and Blockchain | Science & Technology Review

Figure 1 The overall technical solution

1.2 Overall Technical Architecture

Figure 2 shows the overall technical architecture design of the smart power platform, which consists of two parts: cloud and edge-end nodes. Among them, the edge-end edge node technology architecture includes two parts: the edge node cloud-edge collaboration technology stack and the edge node blockchain technology stack. As the carrier of cloud execution at the edge, the edge node mainly collects business data and uploads it to the cloud for analysis. The cloud delivers business applications and business contracts to the edge, and performs business logic discrimination at the edge. At the same time, each blockchain is formed at the edge end, and the data is stored on the chain according to the contract issued by the cloud to ensure that the calculation process and calculation results are reliable, credible and traceable. Through the design of this architecture, the effective integration of blockchain technology and edge computing nodes is realized.

Research and Design of Smart Power Platform Based on the Integration of Edge Computing and Blockchain | Science & Technology Review

Figure 2 Overall technical architecture design

1.2.1 Cloud Technology Architecture

The cloud mainly provides management support for the edge end, and sends business, applications and data to the edge end, and the cloud is responsible for synchronizing data with various business systems as a platform for interaction between various systems. The cloud technology architecture is divided into the presentation layer, application layer, data layer, service layer, platform layer, interface layer and platform support.

The presentation layer and application layer are based on the B/S architecture, and users access and make business calls through WebAPP, providing a visual interface for user interaction to meet users' graphical operation and statistical needs. In addition to the deployment of persistent databases, cache middleware and message queues in the data layer, it also adds support for cloud blockchain, and adds file storage technology that supports blockchain world state data indexing and off-chain association storage. The service layer adopts software as a service (SaaS), uses an automated platform to operate and maintain services, quickly orchestrate and deploy services, and enables and optimizes the service deployment of edge nodes through predictive maintenance, energy efficiency optimization, virtual security gateway (vFW) and virtual load balancing (vLB), and adds support for blockchain platform CA services in the service layer as the authentication basic service of the blockchain to provide certificate services for the blockchain. At the platform layer, platform as a service (PaaS) is used to orchestrate and deploy services, blockchain as a service (BaaS) is used to manage the blockchain, and smart contracts are issued through the BaaS platform to improve the adaptability of edge management. The interface layer manages edge nodes through infrastructure as a service (IaaS), mainly manages edge node resources and devices, and adds information and communication technology (ICT) modules to provide cloud-to-edge communication capabilities, and provides channels for the state data and collected data of edge nodes. At the same time, it also provides a communication channel for the management information of the edge end of the cloud.

In terms of platform support, the cloud platform, the Internet of Things platform and the blockchain platform are connected, the blockchain platform is used as the main chain, the edge end of the blockchain side chain is connected to the chain, and the side chain data is synchronized to the blockchain platform through cross-chain synchronization technology.

1.2.2 Technical architecture of edge nodes

The edge-end technology architecture is divided into the service layer, the platform layer, the interface layer, and the hardware layer. The cloud technology architecture is connected at the service layer, platform layer and interface layer to realize the service collaboration, business collaboration, application collaboration, data collaboration and resource collaboration of cloud-edge collaboration, and the instructions, resources and applications are issued to the edge through the cloud-edge collaboration service, the edge business applications are installed and executed, and the whole life cycle of edge applications is controlled to achieve efficient and accurate collaboration.

The service layer corresponds to the cloud service layer, uses EC-SaaS technology to connect to the cloud SaaS platform, and uses predictive maintenance, energy efficiency optimization and other technologies to implement the operation and maintenance of edge applications and devices, ensure the network environment security of edge services through vFW, and implement operations such as rate limiting of edge services through vLB to ensure service reliability. The interface layer corresponds to the cloud interface layer, which uses EC-IaaS technology to connect to the cloud IaaS platform, communicates with the cloud through the edge ICT infrastructure, uploads the collected and self-contained data, and accepts instructions and data from the cloud to realize the management and scheduling of infrastructure resources in the cloud. The hardware layer adopts IoT hardware equipment and encryption cards, encryption chips and password cards that support national cryptography algorithms (SM1/SM2/SM3) to protect edge devices from physical attacks from the edge and ensure the security of edge devices at the edge.

1.2.3 Edge-end blockchain technology architecture

The edge-end technology architecture is divided into application layer, component layer, core protocol layer and hardware layer, which provides support for smart contracts at the application layer to ensure reliable business execution, and provides software development kits (SDKs) for smart contract operations through the component layer, which is convenient for smart contracts and access applications to carry out on-chain, query and traceability operations on blockchain data. The application layer uses smart contracts and consensus mechanisms to deliver business capabilities to edge nodes through the cloud BaaS platform in the form of contracts, and nodes call contracts to ensure reliable and credible business execution through node endorsement and consensus mechanisms. The component layer adds support for various programming language SDKs and containers for blockchain operations, providing support for smart contracts at the application layer to manipulate blockchain data. The core protocol layer provides a consensus mechanism based on peer-to-peer (P2P) to ensure the reliability and trustworthiness of data on the chain, provides a virtual machine in the software environment for smart contract execution, and provides local storage services LevelDB and FileLog for storing blockchain ledgers, so that edge nodes have the ability to store data and facilitate data traceability. The hardware layer adopts IoT hardware devices and encryption cards that support national cryptography algorithms (SM1/SM2/SM3), encryption chips and password cards to ensure the security of edge devices in blockchain authentication.

1.3 Overall logical architecture

Figure 3 shows the overall logical architecture of the smart power platform, which consists of four parts: the intelligent terminal in the station area, the cloud-side collaboration platform, the blockchain BaaS platform, and the business application platform.

Research and Design of Smart Power Platform Based on the Integration of Edge Computing and Blockchain | Science & Technology Review

Figure 3 Overall logical architecture

The intelligent terminal of the station area is applied to the station area, which is mainly responsible for the collection and local processing of the data on the station side, and uploads the processed data to the blockchain for unified storage. The intelligent terminal in the station area can be connected to the edge computing management platform, and the intelligent terminal can be managed, monitored and maintained in a unified manner based on the platform, and the edge computing management platform can complete the application orchestration and delivery of the business application APP running in the terminal to the terminal.

The cloud-edge collaboration platform supports the unified access, management, and daily monitoring and operation and maintenance of intelligent station equipment, and at the same time, business application apps and AI algorithms can be delivered to intelligent devices in the station area for execution.

As a trusted storage and unified sharing platform for data, the blockchain BaaS platform will store the data of the station area and business data in a unified manner, and provide unified data sharing services to the outside world. It can support the unified management and configuration of the blockchain, including the construction of the blockchain, node management and operation monitoring. At the same time, smart contract management is integrated on the blockchain to realize the verification, issuance and execution of smart contracts.

The business application platform is a lightweight verification platform, which mainly carries the visual management and execution of edge computing and blockchain application results. It can interact with the existing business application system and obtain the basic business data, upload it to the blockchain storage, and query the business data and calculation result data stored on the blockchain.

1.4 Business Application Architecture

Combined with the analysis of multi-user smart electricity business scenarios and processes such as marketing metering, the entire smart electricity platform system can be divided into equipment layer, network layer, basic data layer, support layer and application layer, and the specific business application architecture is shown in Figure 4.

Research and Design of Smart Power Platform Based on the Integration of Edge Computing and Blockchain | Science & Technology Review

Figure 4 Business application architecture

The equipment layer refers to the existing collection terminals and intelligent station equipment on the distribution station area. The intelligent station area equipment is designed based on the actual services on the area side of the current distribution station, integrating collection, calculation, and control. Acquisition is to connect with the existing collection terminal in the station area in the form of bypass, and collect the metering terminal and electric energy meter data on the station side in real time or regularly, including electricity, voltage, current, load, power outage events, etc.; Calculation is based on the deployment of the advanced business application APP on the intelligent station area, and the real-time or timed calculation of the core indicators of the lean management of the station area, such as the topology identification of the station area and the line loss rate of the station area. The control is based on the built-in advanced application APP of the intelligent device in the station area, which directly generates and issues control instructions according to the control requirements, so as to realize the on-site control of the user's electricity meter power failure and recovery.

At the same time, the computing result data, abnormal data, and alarm information can be sent to the blockchain for unified storage, and shared with the business system based on the blockchain platform. The intelligent station equipment is connected to the cloud-side collaboration platform, and based on the cloud-side collaboration platform, the intelligent station equipment is managed and remotely maintained.

In the network layer, the uplink network adopts the existing communication mode, the downlink network solves the efficient collection of meter data, and the horizontal network of the station area supports the application of blockchain on the edge side.

According to the requirements of business functions, the basic parameter center in the basic data layer provides other necessary computing data sources except for the direct collection of meters, and realizes the integration of data through data interfaces and manual import.

The support layer includes a blockchain BaaS platform and a cloud-side collaboration platform. The blockchain BaaS platform provides functions such as one-click deployment of blockchain network, node access configuration, decentralized management of smart contracts, member access management, blockchain network monitoring, etc., supports the upload and release of data at the business layer and device layer, provides platform support for trusted storage and computing of data, and provides back-end service support for upper-layer business applications. The cloud-edge collaboration platform supports the unified access, management, and maintenance of intelligent station equipment, and the application orchestration and delivery of advanced business application apps for intelligent station equipment.

The application layer business application system is used by users of business units or departments such as provincial companies and power supply bureaus. The main functions include smart station area, intelligent cost control, multi-party reconciliation and basic parameter management.

1.5 Overall Data Architecture

According to the overall architecture of the smart power platform, the data architecture mainly controls the whole life cycle of data from multiple dimensions such as data source, data collection, data control, data storage, data service, data application, and data security. Figure 5 shows the overall data architecture of the platform.

Research and Design of Smart Power Platform Based on the Integration of Edge Computing and Blockchain | Science & Technology Review

Figure 5 Overall data architecture

According to the needs of the platform, the meter data is the foundation of the platform data source, and the business is realized by collecting the meter data, so that the data can better serve the business; Meter data mainly include current, voltage, electricity, active/reactive power and other data. Archival data comes from business systems, mainly including: marketing data, measurement data, financial data, and other business data.

Data collection is mainly the source of source data, including scheduled collection, structured data, unstructured data, interface data, manual import data, etc.

Data management and control is mainly divided into two parts, one is edge computing data, and the other is edge blockchain data. Edge computing data is mainly the data items used by edge applications, including cost control data, basic data, electricity bill calculation data, terminal voltage data, load analysis data, power outage perception data, meter status data, and abnormal power consumption data. Edge-side blockchain data includes: fee contract data, edge result data, meter basic data, and other data.

Data storage includes file data and block data of the cloud blockchain, file data includes picture data, document data and structured data, and cloud blockchain data is mainly the data stored in various partitions.

Data services are tools for processing or consuming data, including storage services, computing services, analysis services, and display services.

Application data is mainly the consumption of data, including report display, data analysis, control data, coordination data, block main chain data, etc.

2. Research and design of smart power platform business application

On the basis of the architecture design of the smart power platform, the specific business application logic of intelligent cost control, multi-party electricity fee reconciliation and smart station area in the power consumption platform is sorted out, and the corresponding design scheme and implementation process are proposed.

2.1 Overall design ideas for business applications

The smart power platform includes multiple business scenarios and processes, such as intelligent cost control, multi-party electricity bill reconciliation, and smart station area, and can divide the entire business application into cloud and edge applications. The cloud business application system is deployed in the cloud as a supporting management system for edge applications, and at the same time realizes the statistical analysis of the processing data of edge applications, mainly including intelligent cost control management, smart station area management, multi-party electricity bill reconciliation and basic parameter management. Edge service applications will be customized in smart devices in the station area, mainly to achieve distributed computing and analysis. The functions include station topology identification, line loss calculation, voltage calculation, load analysis, power outage perception, power anomaly analysis and meter status monitoring, and intelligent cost control functions (Figure 6).

Research and Design of Smart Power Platform Based on the Integration of Edge Computing and Blockchain | Science & Technology Review

Figure 6 Business application design ideas

2.2 Specific design of business applications

2.2.1 Design of intelligent cost control business applications

Based on the application of smart devices in the Taiwan area, combined with blockchain smart contracts and edge computing technology, the intelligent cost control service realizes the distributed high-frequency collection of users' electricity and the efficient calculation of users' electricity bills in the Taiwan area.

As shown in Figure 7, the implementation logic of the intelligent cost control business is synchronized by the business management system from the marketing management system, and the basic parameters are sent to the main chain on the cloud, and at the same time, it is delivered to the edge blockchain through the cloud-edge collaboration platform. In addition, the intelligent device in the station area accesses the meter through the bypass, collects the meter code data, analyzes the table code data, and uploads the analyzed data to the edge side blockchain. After obtaining the basic parameters and table code data, the smart contract for electricity fee calculation and balance comparison is automatically triggered on the edge chain of the station area, and the calculation and balance comparison of the user's electricity bill are completed (the comparison result is used as the basis for the generation of cost control and control instructions on the smart device side of the station area), and the user's electricity bill calculation results, power outage list, and early warning list are uploaded to the cloud main chain storage and business management system application. For all kinds of SMS notifications in the process of cost control, the marketing system will query from the blockchain platform and complete the SMS sending. Figure 8 shows the business implementation process.

Research and Design of Smart Power Platform Based on the Integration of Edge Computing and Blockchain | Science & Technology Review

Figure 7 Business logic diagram of intelligent cost control

Research and Design of Smart Power Platform Based on the Integration of Edge Computing and Blockchain | Science & Technology Review

Figure 8 Schematic diagram of the implementation process of the intelligent cost control service

The intelligent cost control service application includes six modules: basic parameter management, user power calculation, user electricity fee calculation, remote power outage and recovery management of pre-collected electricity bill balance alarm, and cost control SMS service (Figure 9). Among them, the basic parameter management can obtain the cost control file data from the existing marketing management system or the form of direct import of data files, and carry out unified management and maintenance of the file data; It also supports downloading fee control file data from the blockchain and storing it to the smart device in the Taiwan area. The user's power calculation is connected to the existing collection terminal through the intelligent station equipment, and the meter code data is collected and analyzed and calculated. The calculation of the user's electricity bill is mainly based on the amount of electricity and smart contracts, and the calculation results will be stored on the chain after the calculation is completed for other business query applications. The pre-collected electricity bill balance alarm module can compare and analyze the electricity bill calculation results with the balance of the user's settlement account, and complete the intelligent control of power outage or resumption according to the results. Remote power outage and resumption management is to generate control instructions and issue them through the intelligent devices in the station area to pull the gate or resume power to the metering control meter/terminal. SMS such as early warning SMS (user), power outage reminder SMS (user), official power outage SMS (grid staff), and power recovery SMS (grid staff) can be directly invoked by the platform to the SMS sending service of the SMS platform.

Research and Design of Smart Power Platform Based on the Integration of Edge Computing and Blockchain | Science & Technology Review

Figure 9 Application of intelligent cost control

One of the important metrics of the intelligent cost control service is real-time, that is, whether it can calculate and transmit the terminal data collected on the station side in real time to improve the user service experience. As shown in Figure 10, when the number of terminal devices is less than 15,000, the service latency performance indicators of cloud services and edge computing-based application platforms are basically the same, and the latency is approximately linear with the number of terminals. When the number of endpoints gradually increases, it can be clearly observed that the service latency experienced by the cloud-based application platform increases significantly, which is approximately exponential. The core reason for this phenomenon is that the increase in data traffic saturates the load of the terminal-ECS, and although the computing power of the ECS is sufficient, the communication link has reached the transmission bottleneck. In contrast, in the application platform assisted by edge computing, the edge node performs preliminary calculation and processing of data, which can greatly reduce the amount of data that needs to be uploaded in the station area, thereby alleviating the shortcomings of easy saturation of communication links.

Research and Design of Smart Power Platform Based on the Integration of Edge Computing and Blockchain | Science & Technology Review

Figure 10 Comparison of average service latency between cloud services and edge computing-based application platforms

2.2.2 Design of multi-party electricity charge reconciliation business application

The multi-party electricity bill reconciliation business is participated by marketing, finance and banking, and it is necessary to carry out marketing bank reconciliation, financial bank reconciliation, marketing financial reconciliation, marketing financial month-end reconciliation and bank-enterprise month-end reconciliation. The idea of multi-party electricity bill reconciliation business based on blockchain technology is to upload the initial detailed data of marketing, banking, and finance to the chain, automatically trigger the reconciliation contract of the blockchain, realize automatic reconciliation on the chain, and share the reconciliation results on the chain, as shown in Figure 11. Specifically, the information center will maintain the blockchain nodes in a unified manner, and unify the marketing, finance, and banking tripartite data on the chain through application programming interface (API) or other means.

Research and Design of Smart Power Platform Based on the Integration of Edge Computing and Blockchain | Science & Technology Review

Figure 11 Business logic diagram of multi-party electricity bill reconciliation

The application functions of multi-party electricity bill reconciliation include initial data uploading to the chain, automatic reconciliation contract of the main chain on the cloud, and the multi-party reconciliation module of the business management system. Figure 12 shows the business process.

Research and Design of Smart Power Platform Based on the Integration of Edge Computing and Blockchain | Science & Technology Review

Figure 12 Business process of multi-party electricity billing

The multi-party electricity bill reconciliation business application includes three modules: basic parameter management, reconciliation contract and result management, and reconciliation result query and analysis, as shown in Figure 13.

Research and Design of Smart Power Platform Based on the Integration of Edge Computing and Blockchain | Science & Technology Review

Figure 13 Multi-party electricity bill reconciliation application

The basic parameter management includes docking from the existing marketing management system and financial system to complete the extraction of marketing charge data and financial accounting data; After the basic data of reconciliation is preprocessed, the on-chain completes automatic reconciliation based on smart contracts. The reconciliation contract and result management include the specific implementation of daily reconciliation and monthly reconciliation and data packaging on the chain, and the result data is stored in the blockchain. The query and analysis of reconciliation results is to query and download data from the blockchain platform on a regular basis, and visually display the reconciliation result data in the form of charts and lists.

The system processing capacity of the reconciliation business application platform is often reflected by the number of transactions per second, which is specifically defined as the number of transactions per block time. Considering the impact of edge computing applications on system performance, when the number of terminal devices in the station area is less than 14,000, the cloud service-based application platform can process more transactions per unit of time, which is determined by the powerful computing power of the cloud server. However, when the number of terminal devices is greater than 15,000, the communication link from the terminal to the ECS becomes a bottleneck that restricts the performance of the system, and the number of transactions per second grows slowly, while the application platform based on edge computing distributes the computing load, thus showing strong robustness to large-scale terminal systems (Figure 14).

Research and Design of Smart Power Platform Based on the Integration of Edge Computing and Blockchain | Science & Technology Review

Figure 14 Comparison of transactions per second between cloud services and edge computing-based application platforms

2.2.3 Design of business applications in smart stations

In view of the existing problems and the needs of lean management in the station area, the smart station business will be studied and planned from the aspects of station file maintenance, lean line loss, voltage monitoring, load analysis, real-time perception of power outage and recovery, and anomaly identification. On the basis of not changing the current network structure and data acquisition structure of the station area, the full high-frequency collection, processing, transmission and storage of metering equipment data such as terminals and electric energy meters in the station area are realized, and the application of blockchain technology is integrated to realize the on-chain storage of result data, abnormal and alarm data, and the sharing of operation data on the station side is realized through blocks, so as to meet the diversified load control needs, panoramic perception of medium and low voltage station areas, rapid research and judgment of faults on the spot, optimization and improvement of power quality, lean control of line loss in the station area, and precise operation and maintenance of low voltage. The flexible and rapid deployment of distribution network services such as rapid location of meter faults and emergency repair and recovery provides high-frequency, complete and credible data support. Figure 15 shows the business logic diagram of the smart station area.

Research and Design of Smart Power Platform Based on the Integration of Edge Computing and Blockchain | Science & Technology Review

Figure 15 Business logic diagram of the smart station area

The data processing will be based on the business applications deployed in the smart station equipment, including station topology identification, lean line loss analysis, terminal voltage monitoring, load analysis, real-time power outage perception, abnormal power consumption identification, meter operation and maintenance, etc.

As a trusted storage and sharing platform for data, blockchain is mainly responsible for storing core data such as original collection data, business analysis result data, and abnormal analysis result data completed on the equipment of the intelligent platform, and sharing business analysis result data and abnormal analysis result data with other systems, as shown in Figure 16.

Research and Design of Smart Power Platform Based on the Integration of Edge Computing and Blockchain | Science & Technology Review

Figure 16 Business process of the smart station area

The smart station service application includes three modules: basic parameter management, power consumption data analysis and mining, and power consumption data collection and calculation (Figure 17). Among them, the basic parameter management mainly involves the customer relationship file data of the station area, and the functions include file extraction, maintenance, chain and distribution. The analysis and mining of power consumption data in the station area covers specific functions such as topology identification and analysis in the station area, lean line loss analysis and alarm, terminal distribution and transformer outlet voltage analysis and alarm, end household meter voltage analysis and alarm, distribution load analysis and alarm, power load analysis and alarm, real-time perception of power outage, research and judgment of abnormal power consumption and alarm, and operation status monitoring of intelligent equipment in the station area.

Research and Design of Smart Power Platform Based on the Integration of Edge Computing and Blockchain | Science & Technology Review

Figure 17 Smart station service applications

The power consumption data collection and calculation of the station area includes the function modules of metering terminal meter freezing meter code data collection, station area line loss calculation, distribution and transformation load calculation, power consumption data calculation result upload, and power consumption data abnormal information upload.

It is generally believed that the higher the frequency of data collection and calculation, the better the system performance, but in practice, there is a compromise relationship between the frequency of data collection and the age of information, where the age of information is a measure of the freshness of the information obtained after data upload and calculation. Figure 18 illustrates the frequency of data collection as a function of the age of the information. It can be seen that when the collection frequency is low, the information is older, that is, the real-time information is poor. However, with the increase of the collection frequency, the age of information gradually decreases, which is the benefit of the gradual fine-graining time of information collection. However, when the acquisition frequency reaches a certain threshold, the information age is no longer reduced, and the fundamental reason is that the computing power of the edge node is limited, and the excessive acquisition frequency will make the computing of the node reach saturation. Therefore, in the actual deployment process of the system, it is of great practical significance to set an appropriate data collection frequency.

Research and Design of Smart Power Platform Based on the Integration of Edge Computing and Blockchain | Science & Technology Review

Fig.18 Relationship between data collection frequency and information age

3 Conclusion

In the context of the great development of smart grids, the smart power platform that integrates new technologies such as edge computing and blockchain can ensure that the power collection system can be collected, stored, calculated, used and managed under the growth of massive data in the power grid, and help the digitalization and intelligence of the power consumption platform.

In terms of technical architecture, the smart power platform based on the integration of edge computing and blockchain designed in this study includes cloud and edge nodes, which are executed by edge nodes to collect business data at the edge and upload to the cloud for analysis. At the same time, each blockchain is formed at the edge end, and the data is stored on the chain according to the contract issued by the cloud to ensure that the calculation process and calculation results are reliable, credible and traceable. At the business level, the design of the smart electricity platform includes cloud business application system and edge business application, and the main applications include intelligent cost control business, multi-party electricity bill reconciliation business, smart station area management business, etc., in these main businesses, the blockchain is used as a trusted storage and sharing platform for data, to ensure the trusted storage of data and to provide a neutral, credible and easy-to-use platform for multiple subjects, to achieve collaboration between different subjects, to form information and value connection, and to produce cross-network synergies. The research and design of the above smart power platform has realized the integration of edge computing and blockchain on the power side of the power grid, and the platform has been actually put into demonstration application in some areas of Yunnan of China Southern Power Grid, and the real-time and accuracy of the system have been greatly improved compared with the traditional platform, and the smart platform will be further promoted and used in the future, so as to better serve the construction of the modern power supply service system and the construction of a diverse and interactive power system.

Authors: Yang Kaixing, Man Hongren, Liu Xiu, Chen Chen, Liu Xueping, Li Jinyuan, Li Wanqing, Li Zhengxuan

About author:Yang Kaixing is a senior engineer at Kunming Power Supply Bureau of Yunnan Power Grid Co., Ltd., with research interests in power metering and automation.

The original article was published in the 9th issue of Science and Technology Review in 2024, welcome to subscribe to view.

Research and Design of Smart Power Platform Based on the Integration of Edge Computing and Blockchain | Science & Technology Review

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