Several households and buildings are now equipped with solar panels and contributing to producing an abundant quantity of renewable energy. The technology led to the emergence of prosumers who are capable of producing and consuming at the same time. This emergence broadened new horizons for energy trading between participants and established a reliable mechanism of blockchain to facilitate trading that is secure, robust, and efficient. The concept behind blockchain technology is to provide an immutable and distributed chain-like data structure to securely store the data that can be verified when needed.
Conventionally, traders need to draft agreements and communicate with each other to buy or sell energy after the finalization of arrangements, public microgrids are used by the consumers. However, if we introduce blockchain in this equation, consumers will be able to place bids for power in the open market and get the best rates and execute the deal without essentially involving a central utility or authority. By enabling blockchain technology, producers will be able to generate revenue on their excessive energy while, consumers can get clean reliable energy through a source of their own choice in the most competitive price. The adoption of blockchain technology essentially allows grid networks to decentralize its operations which offers a simplified trading and unique distributed local energy market model (LEM).
Recently, an Australian government-backed trial of peer-to-peer (P2P) solar trading has shown great potential in localized P2P energy trading. This is the world-first local energy trading trial where households set their own energy prices and it revealed promising results. As part of the RENeW Nexus Project and involved using Power Ledger’s blockchain technology transactions of the solar energy produced using rooftop solar panels were tracked. The trade executed between 48 households in Fremantle, Western Australia (WA). The trials that ran between December 2018 and January 2020, was funded in part by the Australian federal government. The systematic trials have revealed this technology as effective, viable, and well-liked by the consumers. Rapid development of energy-based technology in Australia & around the world reflects that it is just a matter of time before customers will be free to buy their energy from their preferred suppliers and on a price that is not manipulated by industrialists to gain supernormal profits.