Decentralizing the grid: Operators test blockchain solutions
The world’s energy market is rapidly evolving, moving from hydrocarbon plants to a future centered around clean energy enabled by wind and solar power. As such, today’s energy market is shifting to an increasingly decentralized, real-time model based on distributed energy resources (DERs) including battery energy storage systems, solar arrays, natural gas generators and more.
Recent findings from Allied Market Research show that the global distributed energy generation market size was valued at $246.4 billion in 2020, yet this number is predicted to reach $919.6 billion by 2030.
Given today’s advancing energy market, Jesse Morris, CEO of Energy Web — a nonprofit that develops operating systems for decentralized energy grids — told Cointelegraph that grid operators around the world are moving to systems in which customer-owned assets will be used to balance energy grids. “Technology that was previously located within physical substations including monitoring equipment is now spread across the distribution network as the number of DERs increases,” said Morris. While this shift is innovative, Morris pointed out that regulated companies remain unaware of how to manage a decentralized system.
With this problem in mind, Morris explained that Energy Web recently formed a partnership with Stedin, a Dutch distribution system operator (DSO) that caters to the province of South Holland and in parts of North Holland and Friesland to use a blockchain solution for managing distributed energy assets. According to Morris, Energy Web’s solution allows for energy assets to communicate directly with Stedin’s IT systems:
Specifically speaking, Morris explained that Energy Web’s blockchain network is being combined with decentralized
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