International Business Machines Corporation
Using blockchain to select energy-generating sources

Abstract:

A power-distribution routing system of a power-transmission company receives a request to route electrical power to users through a power-grid infrastructure during a specified future period of time. The system retrieves time-stamped blockchain data that identifies past fluctuations in energy demand, service agreements between energy companies, and energy-production and demand-fulfilment histories of energy-generating sources like power plants. The system also retrieves extrinsic contextual and socioeconomic data from online sources and various business applications. An artificially intelligent cognitive framework uses a sliding-frame mechanism to infer patterns in the rate of change of user demand during past time periods similar to the period specified by the request. The system ranks each source by its demonstrated ability to satisfy the patterns of demand in consideration of the contextual data. The system directs downstream components to route energy from a mix of the highest-ranking suppliers through the grid during the specified time period.