Tata Power DDL is collaborating with Australian blockchain firm Power Ledger and the India Smart Grid Forum (ISGF).

Tata Power DDL, a power distribution utility in Delhi, India, Australian technology company Power Ledger and the India Smart Grid Forum (ISGF) are collaborating on a project to enable the peer-to-peer (P2P) trading of solar energy using the blockchain. (Mint)

The advent of solar power and the blockchain

“With growing rooftop solar power being available, we believe that peer-to-peer solar power trading can offer customers the flexibility to buy green power from those who have solar power in excess of their own consumption,” said Tata Power-DDL CEO Ganesh Srinivasan.

The pilot project will help consumers become “prosumers,” or consumers who also produce power.  They can thereafter trade their excess rooftop solar power on a P2P energy marketplace.

The pilot will therefore involve about 150 locations, including TTPDL, and prosumers. These entities will sell their energy to other residential and commercial sites in a dynamic pricing environment.

Furthermore, the energy trades will be recorded on Power Ledger’s blockchain and settled in (near) real-time. The system will be backed up by an audit trail and will be completely transparent.

“India is about to delicense power distribution business and make open access to retail customers enabling them to buy electricity from anybody from anywhere,” added Srinivasan. “In that scenario, a blockchain platform for P2P trading of electricity will be a perfect game-changer for the clean energy revolution in the country.”

Power Ledger Co-Founder and Chairman Jemma Green pointed out that India had set aggressive renewable energy targets. These included 100GW of solar energy. Of this, rooftop solar accounted for 40GW.

Tata Power’s Delhi pilot would, therefore, serve as a guidepost to Indian regulators for scaling up P2P trading of electricity in India.

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