FinBoot has been developing a Blockchain-powered platform to improve the efficiency of tracking the multitude of samples that energy companies need to continuously create. Repsol typically has over 60,000 samples it has to create, as refining and transporting petrochemicals requires products to be sampled and checked in order to meet Repsol’s clients’ requirements. “Currently, there is a lot of rework involved in these types of processes where we handle a large number of samples due to labelling errors, information losses, or incorrect connections between information” explains Tomas Malango, at Repsol, adding “it allows us to identify the samples correctly throughout their whole life cycle.” The existing system is largely manual and paper-based, and therefore subject to human error and mislabelling so is time-consuming, as paper records often go missing.

Repsol believes that it could save up to €400,000 p.a. using this new Blockchain platform and FinBoot is now looking at how similar technology could be used to help other industries, such as the fashion sector where it needs to trace the provenance of the materials used in making clothes.

Meanwhile, the co-founder of Apple, Jo Wozniak, has invested in a firm that uses Blockchain technology called ENFORCE project. Wozniak reportedly said “ENFORCE aims to bring money savings on energy, but it also helps the environment”, a factor he said was important to him. He further added, “Blockchain will bring improvements to energy use and reduce consumption without consumers needing to change their habits”.

Where Blockchain technology is being used in the energy sector.

Source: https://www.indigoadvisorygroup.com/blockchain

Indigo Advisory Group, in the chart above, keeps record of various ways globally that Blockchain technology is being used for different purposes, which is updated as it discovers new initiatives. 

Blockchain technology is increasingly been used in the energy sector as it potentially provides solutions across the energy trilemma: 1) it reduces costs by optimising energy processes, 2) it improves energy security in terms of cybersecurity, but also acts as a supporting technology that could improve security of supply, and 3) it promotes more renewable energy generation and low-carbon solutions.

In a survey of 140 Blockchain research projects, Science Direct has identified many ways that Blockchain technology could help the energy sector:

•  Billing: Blockchains, smart contracts and smart-metering can offer automated billing for consumers and generators. Utility companies could benefit from energy micro-payments, pay-as-you-go solutions or payment platforms for pre-paid meters.

• Sales and marketing: Sales practices could change according to consumers' energy profile, individual preferences and environmental concerns. Blockchains, in combination with artificial (AI) techniques, could identify consumer energy patterns and therefore enable tailored and value-added energy products provision.

• Trading and markets: Blockchain-enabled distributed trading platforms could disrupt market operations, such as wholesale market management, commodity trading transactions and risk management. Blockchain systems are currently being developed also for green certificates trading.

• Automation: Blockchains could improve control of decentralised energy systems and microgrids. Adoption of local energy marketplaces, enabled by localised P2P energy trading or distributed platforms, could significantly increase energy self-production and self-consumption, also known as behind the meter activities, which could potentially affect revenues and tariffs.

• Smart grid applications and data transfer: Blockchains could potentially be used for communication of smart devices, data transmission or storage. Intelligent devices in the smart grid could include smart meters, advanced sensors, network monitoring equipment, control and energy management systems. In addition to providing secure data transfer, smart grid applications could further benefit from data standardisation, enabled by Blockchain technology.

• Grid management: Blockchains could assist in network management of decentralised networks, flexibility services or asset management. Blockchain technology could achieve integrated trading platforms and optimise flexible resources, which might otherwise lead to expensive network upgrades. As a result, Blockchains could also affect revenues and tariffs for network use.

• Security and identity management: Protection of transactions and security could benefit from cryptographic techniques. Blockchain could safeguard privacy, data confidentiality and identity management.

• Sharing of resources: Blockchain technology could offer to charge solutions for sharing resources between multiple users, such as sharing electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

• Competition: Smart contracts could potentially simplify and speed up the switching of energy suppliers. Enhanced mobility in the market could increase competition and potentially reduce energy tariffs.

• Transparency: Immutable records and transparent processes could significantly improve auditing and regulatory compliance.

 Source: https://www.indigoadvisorygroup.com/blog/2019/7/15/blockchain-in-utilities-2019-electric-utility-insights-infographic

According to Indigo Advisory Group, the pros and cons of using Blockchain technology in the energy sector can be summarised and illustrated as above. Therefore, one can see how fundamental Blockchain technology could be in the energy sector.

Increasingly, we are seeing new business models being developed to hold, manage, and process data by implementing technologies such as Machine Learning, Blockchain, and Artificial Intelligence. With ever more data and the roll-out of smart meters, the “Internet of Energy” is slowly becoming a reality, increasing the need for data management even further.

In 2017, Cryptocurrencies fuelled interest in Blockchain technology, with many start-ups and pilot projects being funded by Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), which seemed to be being launched on an almost daily basis! In the energy sector alone, there were over 150 projects using Blockchain, according to SolarPlaza, which it highlighted in a ‘Comprehensive Guide of Companies involved in Blockchain & Energy’. 

If you look at Google Trends to see the interest in terms of searches since December 2017, “Blockchain Energy” has fallen from 100 to 26,  so clearly, the hype has gone. However, we are still seeing a number of projects in the energy sector being developed in different parts of the world.

In France, Grenoble Ecole de Management conducted a survey to ask 112 experts from industry, science, and public administration in France about the role of Blockchain technology in the French energy sector. It wanted to understand how these experts thought Blockchain would be used in the next five years. Peer-to-peer energy trading and electric vehicle charging and sharing were the most popular choices.

Digisol, based in France, is a project designed with an objective to enable the sharing of solar energy between two apartments within the same building.

Meanwhile, in Japan, an Australian company has been using Blockchain technology to enable solar initiatives and working to expand the renewable energy market in Japan. Perth-based Power Ledger has announced a partnership with Japan’s Sharing Energy Company. Power Ledger is providing a Blockchain-based tokenised energy trading platform while Sharing Energy is a provider of solar installations and equipment.

According to Solar Market Insight, the USA installed 2.7 gigawatts (GW) of solar PV capacity in the first quarter of 2019. This brings the total amount of solar power installed capacity to 67 GW, which is enough to power 12.7 million homes. Furthermore, it is estimated that PV installations will double in the next five years, which will assist in reducing the impact of power generation on climate change. However, it presents some real challenges for power management and the electricity grid in the USA. In California, for example, solar farms have previously had to shut down on sunny days because the grid in the state was unable to handle the amount of solar energy being generated.

In 2012, Germany experienced industrial companies sustaining damages due to the instability of its electricity grid due to unprecedented solar and wind fluctuations. In Australia, there were major state-wide blackouts in 2016 for the same reasons.

This week a company called LO3 successfully gained funding from Royal Dutch Shell and Japanese giant Sumitomo Corporation Group. LO3 is looking at using Blockchain technology to track energy supplies, allowing users to select which supplier they wish to select so making peer-to-peer energy much easier. LO3 Energy Blockchain-powered platform was used in Brooklyn in New York in 2017 and was the world’s first peer-to-peer electricity trading project, developed with  Siemens.

Blockchain technology is helping power grids become more decentralised, so accommodating microgeneration and peer-to-peer power supplies. By using Blockchain technology buyers, sellers and transmitters of energy can be sure of the privacy and security of the transactions (also reducing the number of intermediaries), so improving electricity market efficiency. In addition to this, the use of Smart Contracts enables the automation of records and payments, by potentially using Digital currencies.