A Japanese electric utility major has partnered with the blockchain start-up Power Ledger to trial peer-to-peer renewable energy trading in the country.
The effort aims to provide communities with cheaper energy systems to offset existing energy costs. Generating customers will be allowed to monetize their renewable energy investments by selling their excess energy peer-to-peer.
The Perth, Australia-based Power Ledger is a blockchain-based peer-to-peer renewable energy trading platform enabling consumers and businesses to sell their surplus renewable energy or solar power to their neighbors without a middleman.
Kansai Electric Power Co., or KPECO, which is Japan's second-largest electricity utility, plans to use the platform to support the development of Virtual Power Plants, or VPP.
VPPs will help to use consumer-owned generating and storage capacity to support local energy demands.
During the trial, KEPCO will share meter data from participants, initially up to 10 homes, at the chosen sites in Osaka City, Japan.
Energy trading between participants over the Power Ledger trading platform will be facilitated and monitored by KEPCO. The Power Ledger system will allow KEPCO to track the generation and consumption of all trading participants and settle energy trades on pre-determined terms and conditions in near real time.
"The fact that KEPCO is exploring the Power Ledger platform as a solution is a massive indication that the industry has accepted that change is inevitable," Power Ledger Managing Director and Co-founder David Martin said.
By expanding to Japan, Power Ledger is now one step closer to its goal of democratizing power, he added.
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