Blockchain technology is not only for trading cryptocurrencies. Electricity can now be traded with the benefits of the decentralized, transparent and flexible platform.
Electricity trading is a market with big opportunities, but also big challenges. As renewable energy markets grow rapidly and start to comprise a larger share of the energy mix, more new energy systems are creating more inefficiencies. In the current system, these inefficiencies mean electricity is traded and consumed based on faulty pricing signals.
As a result of a lack of real-time electricity pricing, the power trading markets are fraught with risks. Price volatility is high. As more new players enter the market, credit risk is increasing. And Market manipulations by traders are becoming easier and represent an ongoing problem.
Real-Time Demand Response Creates Real Value for Power Traders and Consumers
The Bittwatt platform brings all energy players onto one platform—those who produce, trade, transport, distribute and consume electricity — where full information disclosure and price transparency allows market participants to extract real value.
Real-time pricing allows producers, consumers, and traders of electricity to fully offset their sales and purchases of electricity at the true market value. An imbalanced power market creates waste and extra costs. On the other hand, a balanced power market based on correct pricing signals allows market participants to optimize the forecasting, production, trading, and consumption of power.
Until the BittWatt platform provided the opportunity to gather all the players onto one transparent real-time market, energy balancing faced too many challenges. These included trades that can take days to settle, congestion and blockages in power transportation grids, and faulty pricing signals that make it difficult to sell power back to the grid at the best price. These advantages are only possible in a system that integrates all the market operators. With costs minimized at each node in the electricity system, consumers have many opportunities to lower their energy bills.
Energy Savings for the Smart Consumer
The BittWatt smart consumer interface gives the consumer the power to manage electricity usage and pricing in a sustainable manner. At the heart of this service is the metering system, providing real time usage and pricing information.The smart contract facilitates payment as soon as the electricity is supplied.
The smart meter can automatically adjust any deviations in the system and balance demand and supply.
This means it can also opportunistically requisition power from the best source, be it coal, biomass, hydro or another source. At home, the smart consumer can connect smart energy devices to the smart grid and optimize energy use for each energy appliance.
In addition to real-time energy management, consumers can take advantage of demand response incentives and time-of-use savings offered by electricity suppliers. BittWatt allows consumers to compare information on power suppliers and switch suppliers within a day.
Members of the Bittwatt partnership—comprising Bulgarian energy market coordinator and systems balancer Energy Market TSC, Romanian Power Supplier EVA Energy, and Macedonian electricity supplier Future Energy—already manage over 1,000 GWh of electricity in the European power market.
The footprint of their executive and advisory team of energy market and blockchain experts spans the global electricity market grid. Co-founders Christian Hagmann and Daniel Cristina Stoicescu have over three decades of experience creating IT solutions to optimize electricity market operations in Europe. Hagmann also consulted on the development of COSS (Crypto-One-Stop-Solution)—the Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange and payment gateway that will help facilitate Bittwatt transactions over the blockchain.
This new power market operates on its own currency — the BWT token. One BWT is equal to one kWh, or about $0.12 at current electricity prices. The ICO launched on April 1st and will run for 60 days. 338 mln BWT will be sold at the ICO. The pre-ICO sold out in a few days. The earlier you buy BWTs the larger the discount you will receive.