[2017-05-29] Mint: Europe’s big utilities join blockchain energy trading trial

[polynesia]

Europe’s biggest utilities join blockchain energy trading trial

http://www.livemint.com/Technology/azmOJmxeAFzDP41NLm5OxK/Europes-biggest-utilities-join-blockchain-energy-trading-tr.html

Some of Europe’s biggest utilities joined a project to test blockchain-based trades in wholesale power and natural gas markets.

Utilities from Enel SpA to RWE AG will start live trading based on blockchain in the fourth quarter, after tests that start in August, said Michael Merz, managing director at Ponton GmbH, the developer of the project. The software, called Enerchain, allows anonymous peer-to-peer trading without using a third party.

Blockchain, the technology at the heart of bitcoin, may help the energy business to adapt to a more decentralized world with intermittent solar and wind power output. The technology is being tested by utilities from Vattenfall AB to grid companies such as Tennet Holding BV in areas from consumer electricity platforms to managing the network.

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[trethomgrego]

More info available here http://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/the-smarter-grid/enerchain-a-decentralized-market-on-the-blockchain-for-energy-wholesalers, including this:

The goal of Enerchain is to create a blockchain-driven exchange that provides energy wholesalers with a way to list and sell expected future energy generation. 

Dal Canto estimates that Ponton will deliver a prototype by this summer, and a functioning beta application by the end of the year. There are already more than 20 European traders signed up to use it, he says.