On the 15th May, tech corporation ABB released details of its collaboration with Evolvere for blockchain powered energy distribution. The partnership aims to integrate ABB’s ‘sun to socket’ inverters with Evolvere’s smart grid using distributed ledger technology (DLT).
ABB’s inverters allow consumers to generate and use solar energy in their own home. The multinational Swedish-Swiss firm also provides an interoperable digital platform, ABB Ability, which underpins many of its services, including electrification.
With Evolvere, an Italian utilities firm boasting a retail portfolio of over 11,000 consumer power generation locations, ABB plans to integrate blockchain technology in its generation and distribution of power. They hope to provide a secure and transparent framework for consumers, while being cost and energy efficient.
Rather than a few central plants, the partners’ decentralized smart grid will rely on many small generators; consumers using ABB inverters and sharing their excess with the grid. Currently, Evolvere’s monitoring technology allows users to manage the energy they produce and store.
The CEO of Evolvere, Franco Giampetruzzi, said: “We are committed to spreading the advantages of distributed energy generation through smart grid technology to enable homeowners to realize just how close we are to sharing energy with other consumers. ABB is a high quality and reliable partner that supports our innovations in the blockchain space.”
The Italian firm previously partnered with Prosume to develop DLT for their monitoring system, where, for instance, consumption information is stored and validated on a blockchain. This technology will soon be applied to the collaborative smart grid.
Evolvere’s utilization of DLT will allow secure and dynamic management of energy exchanges, where smart contracts will automate approved transactions. Using ABB Ability, the two firms have created a blockchain based structure in which ABB’s inverters and Evolvere’s system work in tandem.
Massimo Migliorini, the Global Business Development Manager at ABB, stated: “The collaboration with an avant-garde partner such as Evolvere already allows us to imagine a different and innovative energy future today, which aims at efficiency and environmental sustainability.”
