Development of a Secure and Transparent Blockchain for Electricity Bill Management in Smart Cities Using Enhanced Proof of Energy Consumption

Blockchain technology offers transparency, immutability, security, privacy, and trust, but it faces challenges such as inability to obtain real-time data on past electricity usage, lack of customer privacy, and opaque payment mechanisms. A blockchain-based model for electricity use in smart cities aims to address these issues while maintaining transparency and protecting consumers’ privacy. Smart meters, IoT-based devices, collect electricity consumption data at regular intervals and send it to energy providers and consumers. These devices are connected to cloud servers, which function as blockchain nodes. The proposed smart meter-based electricity consumption reading and bill management system uses the blockchain as a decentralized and distributed data storage system for electricity consumption. The system analyzes data generated by smart meters for particulate areas and sends reminders for exceeding the bill amount set by the consumer. The system is implemented on a Python-based blockchain using a customized consensus algorithm called enhanced proof-of-consumption (EPoCon) for energy management. The system considers scenarios of owner changing and meter defects, using Ed25519 and consumer information to generate meter IDs. The system also provides security analysis for the connection between smart meters and the cloud, demonstrating faster transaction rates and security against known attacks.