Centrica - UK’s Biggest Energy Supplier Tests Blockchain Technology
Centrica - UK’s biggest energy supplier and owner of British Gas is working with U.S-based blockchain startup LO3 Energy in an effort to providing greener and cheaper energy to its customers.
The company is currently taking trials of the blockchain technology in order to enhance the Local Energy Market (LEM) of the British energy giant. Centrica has designed the LEM is a way that it can provide peer-to-peer trading between its energy consumers. In short, LEM allows local businesses and consumers to buy and sell flexible energy production to the marketplace participants as well as to the National Grid.
The LO3 Energy blockchain startup has over the years specialized in providing energy companies the blockchain solutions. It also specializes in providing data management services and blockchain technology solutions to participants of the energy industry.
Centrica will make use of Energy which is LO3’s and will trial some energy transactions along with peer-to-peer trading between customers. Centrica will make use of the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) for storing and transferring details of transactions. The accompanying app will let marketplace participants buy/sell energy just at the touch of a button.
Centrica has emerged as a strong player in the energy industry and has recently signed a deal with European Power Exchange - EPEX SPOT. As per the deal, the company would develop a platform that would allow marketplace participants from different countries like Netherlands, France, UK, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland to buy/sell excess power to each other.
Mark Hanafin, Chief Executive of Centrica Business, said: “The proliferation of digital technologies is having a significant impact on the energy industry, allowing us to find new and better ways of delivering energy and services to our customers.”
He further added that it is “an exciting opportunity for us to test blockchain technology beyond the theoretical and put it into practice.”
Centrica is not the first energy company in the blockchain sector to test the blockchain solutions, Earlier, London-based Verv has completed the first physical energy trade on the blockchain platform. However, Centrica being much bigger in size certainly has a larger global reach thereby letting the adoption of blockchain technology in the energy industry to come at the forefront.
Moreover, Centrica and LO3 will be working together on the micro-hiding for the energy company’s business customers. As a result, several energy providing firms will be able to place their orders in power hedges and the one with the best available offer will feature first.