Power Ledger completes trial in Japan, finds people happy to be blockchain energy prosumers
Are energy consumers ready to become energy prosumers? This trial says yes.
In April 2018, Power Ledger announced that it would be running a trial in Japan in conjunction with Kansai Electric Power Co (KEPCO).
And this week, it announced that the trial is completed and that it succeeded on several key fronts.
"Although there are still many challenges like amendments of relevant laws for commercialisation, Power Ledger's product presents significant opportunities for prosumers to sell their excessive energy at more advantageous prices and for consumers to buy it at more affordable prices," said KEPCO representative general manager Fumiaki Ishida.
One of the main boxes ticked by this trial was next to the question of whether energy consumers were happy to be prosumers, and to get on board with Power Ledger's paradigm shift.
"The energy industry is traditionally conservative, and rightly so. When they implement changes consumers are relying on them to be certain it's the right direction," said Power Ledger managing director David Martin ahead of the trial last year.
Fortunately, according to this trial, the answer is yes; consumers are happy to become prosumers, to get closer to the energy grid and to experience the energy savings even if it means settling up with cryptocurrency.
"The success of the KEPCO trial is an extension of successful projects Power Ledger has deployed in other markets leveraging the ongoing development of our technology as well as the experience of working with major energy players like KEPCO," Martin said. "Power Ledger looks forward to building on this success and continuing to work to support KEPCO's innovative plans to maintain its leadership position in the energy transition."
The trial also proved that the system just works.
It showed under real-world conditions that peer-to-peer surplus power transactions could be completely autonomous and automatically include settlements with cryptocurrency regardless of fluctuations in how much solar power is generated and in customer demand for the power. It also showed that the system can be deployed not only in detached houses but also in condominiums and microgrids.
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Disclosure: The author holds BNB and BTC at the time of writing.
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