A new peer-to-peer renewable energy trading trial in Western Australia will soon allow a limited number of households with rooftop solar to trade excess energy with their neighbours.
About 40 residential properties across the City of Fremantle will take part in the trial, which will run until June 2019.
The trial gives households the flexibility to determine how much they are willing to buy and sell solar energy for, and then make the purchase via a blockchain-enabled platform.
A fixed-use residential tariff and a new billing system has also been developed for the trial, allowing households to engage in discrete, time-based energy transactions.
The RENeW Nexus project is managed through Curtin University and is supported by the Australian Government through the Smart Cities and Suburbs Program.
The RENeW Nexus project includes the following partners: Curtin University, Murdoch University, City of Fremantle, Landcorp, Synergy, Western Power, Water Corporation, Power Ledger, energyOS, CSIRO/Data 61 and CISCO.
WA State Energy Minister, Ben Wyatt, said, “The trial represents an innovative solution to virtual energy trading that may have implications for energy utilities working to balance energy supply and demand all over the world.
“These households are believed to be the first in the world to be taking part in an active, billed, peer-to-peer trading trial that allows them to effectively buy and sell solar energy generated by their rooftop system across the grid.”
