Insolar to Cooperate with Toronto’s Hero Engineering to Test Blockchain for Transactive Energy Systems
CommPRO.biz Editorial Staff
Insolar has entered into a cooperation agreement with Canada’s Hero Engineering Inc. to develop and test a blockchain-based platform for improving the resiliency and efficiency of energy systems. Funded in part by a federal grant from Natural Resources Canada (NRCAN), the Insolar blockchain will be integrated into a transactive smart grid prototype, which is designed to improve the uptake of distributed generation of renewables, electric vehicles, energy storage systems, and smart thermostats. The partnership will demonstrate the concrete benefits of introducing a distributed ledger system to enable a transactive energy platform (TEP) - a revolutionary innovation with huge positive climate and economic impact. A particularly innovative objective of the project is to integrate the platform within a city-wide fleet of electric vehicles and charging stations that support vehicle (EV) to grid charging (V2G), which will be one the first blockchain-based V2G blockchain pilots in the world.
The energy landscape is rapidly changing as a result of crucial initiatives to combat climate change and an urgent need to increase overall system resiliency, efficiency, and sustainability. Over 25% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions are a result of electricity and heat production fueled by dirty coal and diesel. At the same time, within the US alone there has been a six-fold increase in the number of power outages over the last two decades -- with economic losses of over US$20 billion. Decentralization and decarbonization efforts have prioritized the implementation of renewable distributed energy resources and electric vehicles, thereby creating new, localized electricity markets and facilitating new stakeholders such as energy “prosumers”, who both consume and produce electricity.
Enabling all of this takes some doing. The intermittency of renewables causes severe instability within grids. Furthermore, significant capital expenditure from grid operators must be invested into extending communication and control infrastructure to monitor and govern a distributed network. Finally, the underlying system must be secure against cyber-attacks, an industry demand that will be worth a trillion dollars by 2020.
Source: Blockchain Wire
