Japanese power company Kansai Electric Power Co. (Kepco) has signed a quadripartite partnership for research of possible applications of the blockchain in a distributed power supply.

In particular, Kepco will work with the Bank, the Mitsubishi UFJ , IT company Nihon Unisys and the University of Tokyo. One of the objectives of the joint project is an attempt to adjust the supply to consumers of excess energy from suppliers, working with solar panels. Participants will be allocating roles among themselves in the following way: Nihon Unisys will develop the very system for distributed power supply, Kepco will conduct system test in the experimental centre and the University of Tokyo will evaluate and summarize the study. Bank Mitsubishi UFJ will give recommendations for the use of the blockchain for payment of services.

“As a result of widespread use of renewable energy sources, including solar panels, the existing power supply system changed its type of production from traditional to intensive self distributed. In the future, likely, electricity will be supplied directly to users through a dedicated platform,” says the press release Kepco.

Note that in March, another Japanese power company Chubu Electric Power Company announced the cooperation with startup Nayuta Inc, specializing in the Internet of things (IoT) and the company-software developer Infoteria. Together they intend to explore the use of the blockchain in the management of charging stations for electric vehicles.

Japan is not the only country that decided to experiment with bloccano in the energy sector. Spain in March, we launched the project, which will create mining farm with a capacity of 300 megawatts, using solar energy. In the future the project hopes to establish the supply of electricity to users directly, without intermediaries. And in April, the government of Chile spoke about the plans to use the Ethereum blockchain for statistics of the energy sector.