Blockchain energy trading comes to Thailand

A peer-to-peer renewable energy trading scheme, based on blockchain technology, is to launch in Thailand following an agreement between the Thai government-backed renewable energy developer BCPG and the Australian blockchain renewable energy trading company, Power Ledger.

The scheme, the first of its kind in South East Asia, will see six to ten multi-storey apartment blocks in Bangkok, linked to a microgrid development, able to trade between 1 and 2 MW of embedded solar generation.

The energy trading platform implemented from Power Ledger will enable building managers to trade renewable energy from the solar panels on each building, with the financial settlements autonomously enabled by the blockchain system.

BCPG President Bundit Sapianchai said that the industry is moving from centralised generation to a distributed energy model, where blockchain technology can play a part. ‘This will help reduce the government’s investment in building large-scale power plants to meet the growing demand for electricity, and at the same time offer customers and consumers a greater choice of electricity from renewable energy in the form of peer-to-peer energy trading,’ he said.

The scheme is designed to enable participants to maximise the benefits of their low carbon plant while sharing the energy with neighbouring consumers.

Power Ledger uses blockchain technology to create an immutable record of energy generation and consumption, allowing consumers to buy and sell energy via embedded networks such as microgrids.