Utility Week

Customers 28 | 6TH - 12TH JULY 2018 | UTILITY WEEK Analysis B lockchain. It is oen hailed as the poster child of utility technology trans- formation. The word has drummed up even more interest in the sector of late, and there are certain companies that are leading the charge. A lack of understanding and the nega- tive perceptions of blockchain are deter- ring many utility companies from taking up the technology. At a recent Utility Week-Wipro Technology and Innovation Council workshop, Wipro lead consultant Muneeb Iqbal Shah warned: "We have to be very careful not to confuse blockchain with bitcoin or cryptocurrency." Put simply, blockchain is a method of record- ing data – a digital ledger of transactions, agreements and contracts. The big difference is that this ledger isn't stored in one place, it's distributed across several, hundreds or even thousands of computers. He pointed out that blockchain itself is not a new technology, and has been around for two decades or more, all be it in a nascent form. There was a consensus in the room that blockchain will not hit the mainstream for another five to six years. However, there are some fast adopters that are already exploring the benefits blockchain could bring to their market or organisation. Utility Week looks at some of these block- chain pioneers. Energy Web Foundation The Energy Web foundation is a test network, first unveiled last October. It was co-created by the Rocky Mountain Institute and Grid Singularity, representatives of which sit on its "foundation council". The test network's principal and co-founder, Jesse Morris, says dozens of companies have been experiment- ing and trialling their applications on the platform over the past 12 months. Morris recently told Utility Week, during an interview for a premium report, that the test network is a "sandbox for innovation" and will be able to support a variety of appli- cations all over the world, from peer-to -peer trading to managing inter-connecting micro- grids. "There are well over 100 start-ups or projects focused on the nexus of blockchain and energy," he added. "Almost every one of those projects is focused on the application layer. These companies have specific hypothe- ses about where value can be unlocked in the energy sector using blockchain technology." At the Utility Week-Wipro event, founda- tion council member and chief operating officer of Grid Singularity, Ana Trbovich, said the network had recently held a sum- mit – Event Horizon – at which 41 block- chain energy start-ups had pitched. These included, but were not limited to, Slock-it, Share&Charge, Electron, Hive Power, Liquid- ity Network and The Sun Exchange. "All of these start-ups, though, are using different platforms," said Morris. "Some are using the public Ethereum network. The Enerchain project is running on the Tender- mint soware." He says that, in about a year, EWF intends to release the genesis block of the chain, which will mean it will be a living, thriving system with a governance structure up and running, validator nodes doing their jobs and actual tokens with real value flowing across the network. "Right now, the Energy Web Foundation makes decisions for the energy web chain because it's just a test network," he explains. "What's going to change is the governance structure will be put on the blockchain. The validator nodes will continue to perform an auto-updating function on the blockchain, but then we will allow developers to vote on protocol changes." Electron London-based soware framework Elec- tron says it is leading the British blockchain charge with a flexibility trading platform that could revolutionise the market for both sup- pliers and consumers. The technology com- pany – headed up by former Npower boss Paul Massara – has developed a common trading venue for all demand-side response actions to enable collaborative trading in the current hierarchical system, as well as peer- to-peer and microgrid integration. It has also developed a shared asset regis- tration platform for all UK gas and electricity supply points to facilitate faster switching, which is now being extended to cover new types of distributed assets. Blockchain's bold pioneers Can utilities benefit from the much heralded new technology as networks become more distributed? Lois Vallely spoke to those who have already taken the plunge. BLOCKCHAIN USE CASES Peer-to-peer Distributed generation Renewable energy Demand response Grid management Energy Access IoT service Metering Energy storage Big data Energy assets 10 5 0 15 20 25

• Cover