# Blockchain Technology Applied in IoV Demand Response Management: A Systematic Literature Review
## 4 Discussion
EVs are not only charged from the grid, but they can also discharge electricity towards that through V2G technology. Hence, EVs may be considered as a distributed backup power, enabling electricity storage during low demand periods, while providing electricity back to the grid during peak periods. **Observation 2--Demand Response Problem due to energy surplus or deficit:** Energy surplus or deficit may threaten the security of the energy supply and demand, leading to a demand response problem. The latter is becoming worse considering the randomness of the EV events, which may lead to energy components' overload and culminating with power outages or service disruptions, leading to the so-called demand response problem. **Observation 3--Optimal schedule of EVs' charging and discharging:** It is challenging to optimally schedule the charging/discharging behavior of EVs to achieve energy balance, considering the instability of EV demand during specific time periods and/or locations. Specific areas of the IoV-assisted smart grid may increase the demand during  
Figure 6: Systematic literature review observations. specific time periods and/or locations. Thus, it is a challenge to optimally schedule the charging/discharging behavior of EVs in order to achieve energy balance in the grid. **Observation 4--Need for a charging coordination mechanism:** Existing pricing coordination techniques have a number of flaws since they rely on a single entity, which might be an untrustworthy third party who is not always truthful when scheduling charging requests. Furthermore, private information about EV owners (such as driving patterns and profiles) could be revealed. To tackle the DR problem in IoV-assisted smart grids, a decentralized, transparent, and privacy-preserving charging coordination mechanism is required. **Observation 5--Blockchain incentives should be considered:** Most of the studies consider blockchain technology to ensure the privacy of the EVs, although few of them consider incentive mechanisms to encourage EV drivers to participate in blockchain-enabled DR through optimal scheduling. Existing charging coordination mechanisms suffer from several limitations, e.g., they rely on a single entity, which may be an untrusted party that is not always honest in scheduling charging requests. In most of the selected studies, it was observed that the researchers considered blockchain technology to ensure the privacy of EV owners. However, not many of them considered incentive mechanisms to encourage EV drivers to participate in this kind of blockchain-enabled DR framework. There are a couple of studies, though, that state that the provision of incentives to the participants (e.g., EV drivers, energy providers and households) will be the key to exploit blockchain technology within smart grids and IoV. **Observation 6--EV profiling for energy demand planning:** EV profiling should be considered to perform an alignment of EV charging and driver mobility demand towards optimizing electricity demand forecasting and planning. Forecasting the electricity price plays a significant role in reducing energy costs. Moreover, energy demand forecasting helps to maintain the balance between electricity demand and supply in the IoV-assisted smart grid. As a consequence, to achieve the optimization of electricity demand forecasting and planning, EV profiling should be considered. As discussed in earlier sections, IoV is now under strain as a result of substantial changes in the production and development of EVs. Indeed, the growing malfunctions in power generation need the development of new paradigms. Demand response is an approach in which EV customers actively alter their consumption in response to grid demands. Thus, energy management, which allows the optimal use of constrained energy resources, is required for the establishment of a smart, green and sustainable smart grid. However, the widespread use of unpredictable and uncoordinated EVs creates problems.