But for all the change, we still have a system where, increasingly, consumers are frustrated about paying so much for electricity and not getting a fair return on their solar investments. A system where strong winds can black out 20,000 homes. Where renewable infrastructure investment is limited to sophisticated investors and carbon initiatives are restricted by clunky registries.

These problems are asking questions of today’s energy markets. And if we let go of preconceived views on what the solution should look like, blockchain can answer several of them.

Better energy system management

Using the blockchain means consumers can sell their battery sourced electricity to their retailer in peak periods, and provide energy services to help retailers manage their price risk, and receive an enhanced price for their energy, and be paid that same day.

Projects that benefit from this type of arrangement are already in progress, empowering customers to alter usage habits to consume energy at off-peak billing periods.

If electricity is expensive one evening because everyone is taking a shower, the price mechanism can kick in and manage the system so that it heats the water up a little later when the spike is over.

If there is a high price in the market, you can have your system set up to automatically dispatch your energy and be paid instantly for it.

Cross retailer trading – a bona fide market

Today, households with solar panels can sell their excess energy to an energy retailer for a fixed price, and the retailer then sells it to other households. This is only possible if both customers use the same energy provider, not to mention the payment to the household selling the energy can take months.

By contrast, using the blockchain can provide a fast, cross-retailer peer to peer trading and settlement system which can pin the financial transaction to the physical transaction, regardless of who the energy provider is. Using a blockchain mitigates the risks of a single party controlling the central repository of sensitive information, as would be required if using traditional database technologies. A blockchain negates the need for a central authority to settle the transactions.

When it comes to regulators, access to immutable and validated market records offer the potential to help streamline disputes and complaints, reducing incidents of ‘unders and overs’.

Low cost and low carbon energy for all

If we can enable more peer-to-peer interactions across networks, we can build an economic framework and marketplace where owners of solar and batteries are incentivized to keep supporting the overarching system, rather than defecting from the grid altogether. This keeps costs down and customers happy. Customers without solar panels can purchase renewable energy from their neighbours, which allows them to contribute financially to the renewable energy economy.

Carbon Markets

The issuance and tracking of carbon and renewable energy credits is a process plagued by hulking legacy implementations, archaic user experiences and often tedious submission requirements.

Once the challenge of navigating these unintuitive systems has been surmounted, new and old market participants alike must navigate the opaque world of aggregators and brokers to monetise their credits.