
The World Energy Council (WEC) and PwC interviewed 39 companies/organizations to understand the maturity of blockchain technology in energy and its potential and impediments.
In a newly released report, Blockchain in Energy, the WEC spoke with traditional oil and gas companies, regulators and utilities to better understand the blockchain hype.
Their findings include:
1. Feasibility and scalability of technology is a challenge, but those interviewed believe that the "with time, testing and refining of the technology these will be crossed.
According to a release by the WEC, "The Energy Web Foundation (EWF) is building open source blockchain tools and technologies, working with more than 80 energy companies’ affiliates and start-ups. Part of their focus is speeding up the number of transactions that can be handled, along with the cost-effectiveness of processing transactions.
"EWF has implemented a proof of authority consensus mechanism that requires the known companies to validate transactions, increasing the potential for regulatory integration."
2. Blockchain in energy is in its infancy. 85% of interviewees confirmed that their use cases were in the "early stages and their pilots [were] not mature yet."
3. The blockchain is not the only solution - other options include Faraday Grid.
The Faraday Grid is underpinned by patented Faraday Exchanger technology and is the foundation for the Emergent Transactional Platform; a scalable transactive grid for the energy market, according to faradaygrid.com
4. Regulation and customer engagement needs need to adapt and 'reframed'. However, blockchain can bring immediate optimization for the existing system.
According to the WEC's Marzia Zafar: “Blockchain in energy has the potential to upend the energy system that was created over a century ago, but it has a long way to go. In the meantime, it is certainly pushing the envelope and forcing market players to innovate and create new business models to bring a cleaner, reliable and equitable energy system for everyone.”
It is said that the platform addresses short-term volatility, dynamically managing voltage and power factor, and removing harmonics; enable significantly greater capacity to integrate renewable energy; increase grid stability, and contribute to the reduced cost of energy for consumers.