The goal of using blockchain technology – versus a standard centralized utility – is that individual energy storage and solar power systems can talk directly to each other. Currently, the large electricity utilities talk to large scale distributed solar facilities via phone call and spreadsheets. There are occasional experiments – in Hawaii for instance – where we are trying to get solar panel level data to the electricity utilities. And everyone is asking for this high level data – we’re just not there yet.
The blockchain folks think they have a solution though…
If the utility doesn’t have the tools, and FERC moves to slowly – call in the distributed management solutions. When a home needs electricity – and another one somewhere else has it – its not that hard to release some electricity. Of course, grid management is a lot more complex than this – however – not much more complex (remember – phone calls and spreadsheets).
Someone is going crack this nut, and large volumes of distributed solar and energy storage will guide the powergrid.
SOURCE: According to the NEMoGrid website, the project will evaluate three business models: centralized utility management, decentralized voltage and power-based tariffs, and a peer-to-peer market using the Ethereum blockchain for transaction recording. One of NEMoGrid’s aims is to investigate the interaction between electricity tariffs and peer-to-peer trading, as well as the impact of trades on the stability of local distribution grids.
