Child startup ConsenSys Grid+ has started the supply of renewable energy in Texas by using the Ethereum blockchain. The introduction of the DLT allows users to buy and sell kilowatts, using contract Smart Agents. The project received the approval of the regional Commission for public utilities in June of this year.
Texas is the first state where residents can use the services of Grid+. The company plans to expand its presence in the national market. The official release of the project to the market commented on Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin (Lubin Joseph):
“This is a turning point. Team Grid+, working tirelessly, began supplying electricity to the first four customers.”
Grid technology solves two major problems: storage and distribution of renewable energy and the wholesale purchase of kilowatts for industrial purposes.
Thus, the enterprises with high level of energy consumption will be able to make several requests for the purchase of kilowatts at the same time, thereby quickly getting the necessary amount of energy. In addition, because Grid+ provides for the sale of excess kilowatt, companies do not have to buy more electricity than they use.
Producers of “green” electricity Grid+ will also allow to optimize business processes. For example, generated by solar and wind stations of excess capacity will be more efficiently distributed to the network subscribers.
In order to effectively serve the unregulated market for alternative energy, Grid+ has developed a system based on Raiden Network — the scaler Ethereum, similar to the Lightning Network. The system is specifically adjusted to the needs of payment structures, providing higher speed of transaction processing and reduced Commission. If Raiden still won’t handle the load, ConsenSys may support the proposal Vitalik Buterin application of method of scaling zcash for ZK-SNARKS.
A similar project owned Australian company Power Ledger, however, their initiative is based on peer-to-peer distribution of electricity within the same quarter.
