Power Ledger has signed an agreement with Connected Communities Energy – a project by residential developer Nicheliving – for a large-scale solar energy trading roll out in Western Australia. The developments will integrate Power Ledger’s platform into 10 Nicheliving projects over three years.
“As part of its Smart Cities initiative, Connected Communities, Nicheliving was seeking a way to provide new homeowners with more sustainable and affordable energy in their new home. Power Ledger’s technology enables homeowners to lower their daily energy costs and unlock a new revenue stream by monetizing excess solar energy and reducing their reliance on fossil-fuel sourced power,” said Nicheliving Managing Director Ronnie Michel-Elhaj. “The relationship with Power Ledger will help us deliver on our commitment to building more sustainable communities for Western Australian homeowners.”
Power Ledger and Nicheliving in Perth
Power Ledger is a Western Australian-based energy trading technology company. It will install its platform across 10 residential developments that Nicheliving will build. The first are in Inglewood (62 apartments) and East Cannington (40 apartments) in the Perth metropolitan region.
Power Ledger’s technology will deploy its approach in combination with Connected Communities Energy. The latter is a project by residential developer Nicheliving, Perth’s largest medium density property developer.
The deal will see the deployment of Power Ledger’s Blockchain technology to Nicheliving’s flagship development, SkyHomes Inglewood development. Additional future housing developments will follow. The development will deliver 100% renewable energy through:
- an embedded electricity network
- solar PV
- a storage microgrid.
Power Ledger is already working with property developers to implement its energy trading software. This can be ‘from the ground up’, by supporting solar and storage in people’s homes as well as in commercial property developments.
The Power Ledger platform
Power Ledger is an Australian technology company that has developed a blockchain-enabled renewable energy trading platform. Its energy trading software is usable for buying and selling electricity in real-time. If a ‘customer’ has solar panels on he or she can:
- use the platform to sell excess energy to (say) a neighbour
- store excess energy (if there is battery storage) to sell at peak consumption times, thereby maximising opportunity income from the solar power generated.
For the Nicheliving initiative, its platform will:
- track energy consumption and transactions
- enable the residential developments to sell surplus solar energy to other residents
- make distribution of power more efficient
- exploit the solar energy generated.
“Nicheliving is the largest medium density developer in Western Australia to deliver blockchain technology to manage energy delivery and trading,” said Power Ledger Co-Founder and Chairman Dr Jemma Green.
“We’re seeing an emerging trend of project developers considering more low cost and low carbon energy supplies during the design phase of their projects. Power Ledger’s platform incentivises homeowners to invest in solar energy infrastructure. New homeowners are always looking for ways of reducing the upfront cost of providing power infrastructure and (its) platform is available to help pay back a solar investment faster, while reducing the carbon impact of energy.”
Enterprise Times: what does this mean
Besides as well as a virtual power plant program in South Australia, Power Ledger:
- is active in the National Electricity Network (NEN) in South Australia
- hopes to expand to Australia’s east coast later in 2020
- already has active projects in Austria, Thailand, Japan, Malaysia and the USA.
In concept, the Power Ledger approach is similar to trading shares on a stock exchange. Customers can set to buy and sell energy at the price they choose. They obtain security and peace of mind with all transactions recorded on a blockchain. As important, this sort of initiative contributes to, and has relevance for, reducing ‘rejected energy‘.
