PIONEER: Peer-to-Peer Integrated Optimized Energy Exchange Resource

The PIONEAR (Peer-to-peer Integrated Optimized Energy Exchange Automated Resource) project is a decentralized energy trading platform developed to allow residential prosumers to trade excess solar energy securely and transparently with their neighbors. Built by a team of computer engineering students under Equilux Energy, the system combines blockchain smart contracts, machine learning forecasting, and IoT data reporting and control to manage and automate energy trades. Users interact through a cross-platform Flutter app, backed by an AWS-hosted, cloud-native backend featuring services like Lambda, DynamoDB, and IoT Core. The app includes real-time dashboards, energy trade execution using an ERC20 token called Pio, and chat functionality for direct negotiation. The entire system was containerized, infrastructure was provisioned using Terraform, and data privacy was enforced using encryption, HTTPS, and JWT authentication.

On the hardware side, the project deployed a fully functional microgrid simulation involving two prosumers. Each node features solar panels, a 12V lead-acid battery, relays for automated power switching, a DC-DC converter for voltage regulation, and DIY smart meters for real-time current and voltage monitoring. Energy flow is intelligently controlled using two ESP32 microcontrollers per node one for data acquisition and cloud reporting, and another for receiving trade commands and controlling hardware relays. This setup enables real-time, autonomous energy trading and tracking. The system was designed to be modular, cost-effective, and easily scalable, making it a strong proof-of-concept for implementing peer-to-peer energy trading at both community and municipal levels.

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Project Details

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