Blockchain Techologies For the Energy Access Sector

Overview

See Blockchain Opportunities for Social Impact in Developing Countries Blockchain technology reduces transaction costs: recording every transaction, it can be identified on the public record by all parties of the transaction. Therefore, also in the energy sector, blockchain technology has the potential to play a significant and potentially game-changing role: It may lead to reduced costs of utility bills and/or reduced transactions costs in wholesale market for gas or electricity limiting the need for working capital. Game-changing will be the impact of blockchain technology on the communication possibilities among energy devices (water heaters, electric vehicles, batteries, solar PV installations, etc.) and with the grid operator (smart grids).

• Lowering costs are also expected due to more information for utilities and grid operators for the integration of volatile renewable energy capacity into the grid.
• The source of electricity can be identified; for example, with blockchain technology it can be possible to identify whether the kWh a consumer currently uses has been produced via renewable energy systems or via traditional ones.

• Like for many “new” technologies, people are overestimating the impact in the short run, but underestimating it in the long-run! Many use cases will come up in the future and in remote areas.

• [What other impacts will blockchain have on the energy access market?]

Challenges to overcome:

• Energy regulations often include who can be a retailer (and who can not be). Changes are often necesssary to include also prosumers and small electricity providers.
  
• Lack of regulation in the blockchain technology sector might make companies wait before investing. Defferences in regulations are expected worldwide.
• Infrastructure is still an obstacle. Bitcoins are not always accepted. Mobile phones need to download an app.
• Is Blockchain technology sutiable to deliver subsidies in a cost-effective matter?

Potential Use Cases for Blockchain in Decentralised Energy Systems

• Targeted Subsisies
  
• Ownership Management
• Customer Management
• Network Management
• Fundraising
• Supply Chain Optimisation
• P2P Energy Trading
• Multiple applications are still under development.

Blockchain applications: Innovative Market Place to enhance Energy Access

"In 2017, a non-profit, Energy Web Foundation (EWF), started developing an open source, scalable blockchain platform with the aim of creating a market standard for the energy industry to build upon and run their own blockchain-based solutions.

EWF’s first use case, EW Origin, creates a marketplace where all smart meters on solar PV can communicate. It also records the provenance of renewable electricity generated, with clear details of source type, time, location and CO2 emissions. This provides a universal dashboard tracking the energy consumption of the world. [...]

Moves to achieve universal energy access for all in Africa cannot be superficial. The commitment to electrification success should be strengthened with the mutually-beneficial collaboration of public and private entities. Successful collaboration between these players will come from shared interests, openness in investments, and the use of innovative solutions; and there should be active participation of citizens too."

Blockchain Technology in Financing Energy Access

In many regions in Africa, many solar panel projects are often left unfunded. Most of them are under 1 million USD in value. This funding gap could be closed by crowd-financing: individuals around the world can purchase the photovoltaic cells that make up the solar panels on African houses. Only if enough solar cells are pre-purchased, the solar panels are constructed. During the crowd-sale period (a certain limited number of days), the sum a buyer is willing to spend is allocated to the number of solar cells he will get for it (due to the volatility of the bitcoin). Those cells deliver energy to the African households, in turn households pay a rental income in bitcoin to the investors for some years. The solar cells are owned globally by individual digital currency users with ongoing solar powered nano-income payments made possible because of the unique properties of bitcoin, the blockchain technology used to finance energy access.

Companies and Organisations Using Blockchain Technology for Energy Access

[What other companies are in this field?]

Renewable Cryptocurrencies

Renewable cryptocurrencies aim to motivate solar prosumers by rewarding them. This is a take on how bitcoin incentivizes miners to commit processing power to the network by rewarding them with bitcoins for each block of transactions mined.

SolarCoins

MIT start-up SolarCoin pays people with an alternative digital currency for generating solar energy, one coin for 1 megawatt-hour of solar electricity. So far, it is active in 32 countries. SolarCoin is incentivizing 97,500 TWhs of global solar energy production over the next 40 years.

M-PAYG

M-PAYG makes transactions using crypto-currencies and executes the payments contracts on blockchain. The M-PAYG concept has two sides and both include blockchain: 1 Mobile money or Blockchain technology to pay into the cloud and 2 real time monitoring of the solar panel (including shut off/on).

They use a leasing to own model: 5 USD per month gives the consumer a flat rate of solar energy.

• Converging technologies: energy (M-PAYG) and payments, WIFI were three separate fields are now targeted together. MPAYG are starting with providing energy, and other partners are delivering the towers to roll out wireless internet connectivity to the rural areas.
• This will allow for more value added services: data calls, e-health, e-farming, insurance, e-banking, payments, education, content.

They actively work in Tanzania, with plans to move into Uganda and Malawi within 2017.

“Currently, we are working with mobile wallet providers like M-PESA to bring solar energy to the unbanked part of the world. But in the future, our business could build on Blockchain-based payment solutions, radically lowering transaction costs and taking out the centralised middleman as a provider of trust,” says David Dizon, co-founder & CEO of M-PAYG

Cross-border payments by Coinfy

Blockchain payments and trade platform Coinifyallows cross-border payments. Blockchain payments incur minimal transaction fees, which is paramount for developing countries suffering from high transaction costs making trade economically unattractive. Blockchain technology allows low cost payments between off-the-grid solar companies and people lacking access to energy sources.

KWHCoin

KWHCoin is a blockchain-based community, ecosystem and cryptocurrency backed by units of clean, renewable energy. KWHCoin is specifically looking at empowering people at the edges of the grid for an independent renewable energy future.
The mission statement is to provide a solution to the 1.2 billion people in the world without access to electricity.

• how does it work: read more here
  
• KWHCoin is working on final arrangements for development of the decentralized application with multiple partners to develop a comprehensive application to handle the estimated transaction volume from the platform.
• KWHCoin, unlike many other cryptocurrency projects, has value at the generation of a Kwh of renewable energy, creating tremendous value based on a network of active renewable energy generation and distribution.

What separates KWHCoin from other cryptocurrency projects in the renewable energy sector is that they focus on the “grid’s edges”.  “Edges” of the grid are defined as smaller distributed energy resources, such as solar panels in the residential market, electric vehicles, microgrids, wind farms and demand response technologies, to name a few. These comprise the elements for a new two-way generational model of energy distribution. This presents a great opportunity for local communities to directly participate in the renewable energy economy.

ImpactPPA

ImpactPPA aims to disrupt renewable energy to finance and accelerate global clean energy production by decentralizing and tokenizing energy generation through power purchase agreements (PPAs). They will launch the public sale 22.4.2018

Bitcoins for Energy meters in South Africa

Bankymoon, a South African company uses PAYG to top up the energy meters. Each meter has a unique bitcoin address - every time it receives a bitcoin payment, Bankymoon calculates the tariff and load the energy meter. It piloted this concept in South African schools in 2016.

Green Coins for Solar Energy in Nigeria

Nigerian solar company, OneWattSolar allows its customers to pay for the solar energy using cryptocurrency. End-users buy tokens called "Green coins" using Niara and then use the tokens to pay for the electricity on the blockchain platform, Ethereum.

Experiences: Investment Platform based on Blockchain Technology by EcoKraft

EcoKraft GmbH is developing a next-generation social impact investment platform for community energy projects in developing countries.

Smart meters collect the consumption data from households in Malawi and send it through SIM cards (GMS data system) to Germany. So far, this is only the pilot. But EcoKraft expects to change the financing of energy access project worldwide!

EcoKraft provides information on the economic viability of mini-grids for investors to finance additional mini-grids.

“With interest rates at 32-35% at traditional banks, especially small companies are not able to finance the access to electricity in their communities.” Bjoern Fischer, CEO of EcoKraft GmbH, states. That is why EcoKraft is looking for investors to help finance the access to electricity in remote areas. They offer a unique investment with competitive rates of returns and valuable information to the investors.

Blockchain technology enables transparent investments and risk management through forecasting future cashflows. Additionally, EcoKraft offers targeted technical assistance during the early stages of a new energy access project. Therefore, investment are de-risked.

Investors can track their projects at any stage, and stay updated on project performance and operational metrics. Therefore, they have access to the data about the total energy generation, energy reliability, and social and environmental impact of their investment. Investors can check how much CO2 was reduced, how many more people have access to lighting and healthcare. Due to the IRIS industry-standard performance metrics, investors can compare the EcoKraft investments with competitors.

• http://www.eco-kraft.com/invest/

Experiences: Solar Energy Finance Platform by Sun Exchange

Sun Exchange has built a blockchain based solar energy finance platform which fills a huge funding gap for commercial and industrial solar energy projects in Africa. It enables anyone in the world to buy and then earn revenue from solar panels powering Africa.

How it works: Buy solar cells and lease them to schools and businesses in developing nations. The Sun Exchange arranges your monthly lease rental collection and distribution.

The Sun Exchange is a marketplace where you can purchase solar cells and have them power businesses and communities in the sunniest locations on earth. You lease your solar cells purchased through The Sun Exchange to hospitals, factories, schools and other end-users, earning you decades of solar powered rental income wherever you are in the world.

The Sun Exchange hosts the so-call 'crowd-sale' of solar cells. It works similar to a crowd-funding as the project will only go ahead once all the solar cells have been sold. Solar Exchange arranges the solar equipment leases for the investors and arranges the revenue collection and distribution systems so investors earn a passive stream of rental income for 20 years powered by the sun.

Experiences: Energy Trading platform by Conjoule

Conjoule is a German startup company which received EUR 3 million funding from Tokyo Electric Power Company and EUR 1.5 million from the German energy company Innogy SE.

Conjoule is beta- testing its peer to peer energy platform based on Blockchain technology with a restricted users and plan to launch it commercially in 2018.

Experiences: Peer-to-peer Trading Platform by ME Solshare Ltd.

ME Solshare is a blockchain startup based in Bangladesh.It has created a peer-to-peer energy trading where the consumers with solar panels on their home can generate electricity for their personal use and then sell the extra electricity to their neighbours. This results in a community microgrid and is important in Bangladesh where the central grid is not reliable and people face black and brownouts.

ME SOLshare is a platform provider for sustainable and affordable electricity access to low-income, rural Bangladesh. Their peer-to-peer smart PV DC village micro-grid in Shariatpur is the world’s first peer-to-peer electricity trading network that interconnects existing Solar Home Systems. Bi-directional metering enables users to buy and sell electricity to the grid. Households that did not have their own system can now buy electricity from their neighbors. With more solar power, fossil fuel use declines, and villages benefit from access to more energy.

They were recongnised as one of the outstanding solar projects on the Intersolar 2018. The jury described this local solar-generated-electricity marketplace as a “powerful concept” and “exciting.” This project is a bottom-up, decentralized approach that demonstrates sustainable, incremental demand/supply-side system growth for increased energy access with lower investment. It is a new business model that is replicable in other villages.

Experience: Energy Trading Platform by WePower (Lithuania)

WePower is a blockchain based energy trading platform for green energy. Here, the energy buyers can purchase energy at below-market rates by directly connecting with the energy producers. Energy producers on the other hand can raise capital by issuing tokes that can be traded and later redeemed for energy.

Building Microgrids Based on Blockchain Technology

LO3 Energy (USA)

LO3 Energy is a New York based startup that implements microgrids using renewable energy to power sectors in a social setup. They are currently piloting a microgrid in brooklyn based on the blockchain technology.

How it works: The residents with the solar panels sell their environmental credit to residents without solar panels via a phone app. The residents can then negotiate with each other on how much and at what price they want to buy the electricity. This process eliminates the middleman and allows peer-to-peer exchange. The entire setup is made possible by blockchain, which allows the smart meters to communicate with one another reliably and the app acting as a bidder that gives microgrid consumers the power to control transactions.

LO3Energy is seen primarily seen as an energy technology company, but they think block chain is the most suitable solution. Transactivegrid is the blockchain they use. Their meters not only collect data on consumption but communicate with each other and other smart devices using tandard communication protocols. They see several business cases for blockchain technologies:

• Local peer-to-peer energy market: Electric flows between prosumers and traditional providers, but blockchain platform can allow for placing bids and provide ownership to the one who won the bid of the locally produced renewable energy.
• Localized Demand Response: Substation the risk of overloading can be managed cost effectively.
• Location-based pricing: supply costs are not the big part, but the grid costs are the heavy part of the electricity cost. Bying directly from the supplier will make it cheaper for the customers.

After a successful pilot phase, the microgrid will be formally launched in later 2017 and will provide electricity to 300 households and small businesses. Several pilots worldwide (Australia, Germany) within 2017 and they are partnering with Siemens, KIT, AEMO, EPEX SPOT.

Regional mini-grids: wholesale trading (Germany)

Enerchain from PONTON: They offer their services to energy traders who need trading data via platforms, data communication processes. Project Enerchain: The world’s first wholesale energy trade over the blockchain took place on 5^th of November 2016. Orders and all information are provided end-to-end. Blocktime is 1 second (Bitcoin uses 10 minutes) and therefore very fast. Over 30 partners (mostly big national utilities) test the blockchain until October 2017.

• An example of a local grid: NEW 4.0 (Norddeutsche Energiewende). Since the region has a large renewable share (> 50%), NEW brings together the producers and the consumers of this energy to manage demand and supply side via a marketplace (price, dynamic grid usage fee) using blockchain. Started in 2016 and will run for 4 years.
• Smaller blockchain based market place: Powerprice, battery, electolyser, electric vehicle interact via blockchain together to run the devices at the most cost-effective way.

Further Information

• Blockchain Opportunities for Social Impact in Developing Countries
• Publication - Primer on Blockchain
• Effective Disruption: How Blockchain Technology can transform the Energy Sector
• http://www.eco-kraft.com
• Groarke, David. ‘Energy and Blockchain Go Global: Utilities, Startups, and Use Cases’. Power Ledger -A New Decentralised Energy Marketplace, 17 March 2017. https://powerledger.io/energy-blockchain-go-global-utilities-startups-use-cases/.
• Groarke, David. ‘Energy and Blockchain: The Most Promising Applications’. EnergyPost.Eu, 24 May 2017. http://energypost.eu/energy-and-blockchain-here-are-the-most-promising-applications/.
• The Sun Exchange: Interview @ engerati 04 May 2017 and Powering Africa through blockchain crowdfunding 25 April 2017
• Mougayar, W. (2016). The Business Blockchain: Promise, Practice, and Application of the Next Internet Technology. John Wiley & Sons. Link. This book lists a few companies involved in “Energy & Block chain”. It states that “Blockchain applications can help achieve a more efficient management of the power distribution grid, low-cost microtransactions between peers or machines, secondary market creation, or rule-based payments.”
  • TransActive Grid, a joint venture of LO3 Energy and ConsenSys, developed the first application for a mini-grid: delivers real-time metering of local energy generation, enables residents to buy and sell renewable energy to their neighbours. In March 2016, 5 home owners with solar panels in a Brooklyn, New York neighbourhood started to sell to 5 customers across the street their left-over energy.
  • Accenture has developed a smart plug that coordinates and monitors power use of appliances in the house. When demand is high or low it searches for energy prices and then uses the modified blockchain to switch suppliers if it finds a cheaper source. It could help many people on lower incomes who pay for their power via meter.
  • Grid Singularity is experimenting with the blockchain to authenticate energy transactions. The company is targeting developing countries where it wants to make pay-as-you-go solar more secure. Its eventual goal is to build a blockchain platform for energy systems that can be applied to any type of transaction on the grid. The new platform will support forecasting for grid balancing (smart grid management), facilitate investment, trade of green certificates/certificates of origin and eventually energy trade validation.

• Hasberg, Kirsten. ‘M-PAYG: Next-Generation Mobile Payments for Rural Electrification’. LinkedIn Pulse, 9 May 2016. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/m-payg-next-generation-mobile-payments-rural-kirsten-hasberg.
• M-PAYG presented in the webinar of NEETS (Facilitating New Energy and Electrified Transport Solutions): Webinar Blockchain Technology in Energy (29th August 2017).

• World Bank’s Energy Access Global Solutions Group organised a webinar with presenters from leading fintech and blockchain companies M-PAYG, Coinify and Chainalysis to discuss the potential of using blockchain technology as a tool for World Bank’s operations on energy access and related projects.
• Blockchain can change the face of renewable energy in Africa. Here’s how. 30.11.2018, Nsikak John. https://www.sun-connect-news.org/articles/finance/details/blockchain-can-change-the-face-of-renewable-energy-in-afr/
• Climate Ledger Initiative (CLI) (2018): Navigating Blockchain & Climate Action
• Blockchain In Energy Market Will Hit Record Value USD 11,899 Million By 2024: Zion Market Research https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2019/07/11/1881463/0/en/Blockchain-In-Energy-Market-Will-Hit-Record-Value-USD-11-899-Million-By-2024-Zion-Market-Research.html