Try to imagine an ordinary guy living let’s say in Belgien in a small town on the French border. Let’s assume his name is Andrew, he has his own small two-story house and a family consisting of five members. Being a person with a high degree of awareness and an energy engineer by education Andrew wants the issue of a full automation of energy system of his own house to be solved.

Several years ago he has installed sun batteries able to fully provide his household with the required amount of electricity. Moreover during the summer months there is much more electricity so Andrew is ready to sell the leftovers to over consumers.

Now it is not a problem because the distributed register has come to the energy industry.

Blockchain changes energy industry

2017 has become a turning point for the energy sector. Companies using blockchain in their work attracted about $ 200 million of investments. It is expected that the coming year will face a boom of using a distributed register and attracting money to the industry. We can forecast it already now because it has help attract $ 150 million to power engineering within the first month of 2018.

The speed blockchain is taking over other economic industries is really impressive. A couple years ago an incident occured in New York that seemed totally uncommon. Let’s recall it. In spring 2016 the inhabitant of Brooklyn has sold to another one the energy he accumulated with the help of the blockchain. Now such cases are our routine. For instance the LO3 energy system gives everyone the opportunity to sell surplus electricity.

The pioneers

Germans traditionally love new technologies. People there are got used to save money and the environment. Maybe this is the reason why Germany is one of the first world economies to implement a pilot project in the energy sector.

Conjoule company and the energy giant RWE have developed a blockchain platform, giving any consumer or company an opportunity to buy or sell energy. All transactions there become transparent, and the process of redistribution of energy reserves is more simple and economical.

Another projects uses blockchain for creating its own database. Eight municipal utilities of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia called their project Grün Strom Jetons (Green Electric Tokens). Each house has an "intelligent" counter recording data on energy consumption with the help of blockchain. Depending on these data, it becomes clear how much this energy is really "green" meaning produced by renewable sources such as wind, sun and water. The more such energy a household uses, the more "green chips" the owners get.

Micro networks

Hurricane Sandy caused a blackout in New York in October 2012, pushed the US energy industry to infrastructural changes. Micro networks are the next stage of evolution. They have to cope with the main task which is increasing the stability of energy supply.

Unlike centralized power grids, micro networks are smart and economical: there is no need of transporting energy to long distances, which means less energy loss. They are focused on renewable energy sources, autonomous so that makes them more reliable. They work in the regime of "energy island", providing energy for residential quarters, office centers or even small industrial enterprises. At the same time, if one of these networks fails, all the others will not only discover it, but they will also be able to come to the rescue by redistributing their supplies to the affected area.

Do you remember Andrew? He is now the member of the Belgian energy system Scaneergy working on blockchain. Like other members Andrew is now an energy producer and consumer at the same time. As soon as he has excess energy the system connects him to a smart micro network. The network currency called NRGcoin is enrolled for every kilowatt provided this way. If Andrew will need to buy the energy he can pay for it using this e-money.

The world is facing the third industrial revolution. It happens right now due to the new technology of blockchain and renewable energy sources. Very soon millions of people will generate green energy at their home and office spaces and share is with micro networks and smart contracts and help save the environment in this way.