Power Ledger’s first large-scale commercial rollout commencing in South Australia
Australian energy retailer Powerclub is introducing its members to Power Ledger.
Power Ledger is now in for the first large-scale commercial rollout of its technology, integrating with membership-based wholesale energy retailer Powerclub. As a result, Powerclub members will be able to pool their excess solar and battery storage, to create a virtual power plant (VPP).
By pooling their energy in a VPP marketplace, consumers can buy and sell energy from each other in peak periods, essentially distributing it among each other more efficiently to smooth out demand peaks and troughs.
On a large scale the theoretical end result should be cheaper power and faster return on investment for home solar systems and batteries, which encourages even more people to participate, which reduces costs even further and so on, for a nice clean win-win situation.
Win-win
"Under the current system, energy consumers are subject to additional hidden costs and mark-ups by the electricity retailer to cover supply costs," Power Ledger says.
But a transparent virtual power plant helps solve this problem, and bring clarity to what can be a confusing and opaque area, where sometimes it feels like pricing schemes are deliberately designed to obscure how much you're actually paying for energy.
Transparency is a key part of what Power Ledger's technology offers, as well as a foundation of Powerclub's membership-based pricing scheme, where customers (or members, if you will) simply pay regular membership fees and then get wholesale energy prices.
Driving towards transparency in energy prices may be a solid overarching goal for both partners, making for a harmonious partnership.
"If there's one thing that Powerclub stands by, it’s transparency. We've partnered with Power Ledger as we see their technology as being critical in reducing price opacity in the energy market," said Powerclub CEO and founder Stuart McPherson.
"The Australian Energy Market Commission has already flagged the need for grids of the future to become energy trading platforms," said Power Ledger co-founder and chairman Gemma Green. "The future of the energy industry will be decentralised and democratised, like what we've seen happen to the taxi industry with rideshare apps like Uber and Ola. You no longer need to be a massive electricity company to commoditise energy."
In the longer run, Powerclub and Power Ledger are "already looking at longer term solutions to the current energy crisis to ensure Australians have access to cheaper and cleaner energy" and this deal with Powerclub is expected to expand beyond South Australia to more of the company's members in the future.
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Disclosure: The author holds BNB, BTC at the time of writing.
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