The Uttar Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC) has passed a pilot project for P2P (peer-to-peer) transactions of power from rooftop solar systems utilizing blockchain-based technology.

Government buildings or consumers will carry out P2P transactions for the trading of rooftop solar power under this project. The fees for the blockchain technology will be realized in the ‘account rate of return’ (ARR) of the concerned distribution licensee.

By using blockchain technology, participants can settle trades, transfer funds, or vote without soliciting the consent of the central certifying authority.

The commission has ordered the ‘Uttar Pradesh New and Renewable Energy Development Agency’ (UPNEDA) and ‘Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited’ (UPPCL) to submit the detailed report on the outcome of the pilot so as to fine-tune the outline of the regulations and trading rules and then replicate this arrangement comprehensively within the state.

The ‘Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited,’ along with ‘Uttar Pradesh New and Renewable Energy Development Agency,’ had asked permission to carry out the pilot for P2P transactions of renewable energy-based electricity.

For executing this project, the ‘India Smart Grid Forum’ (ISGF) will guide the UPPCL with an advisory fee of 5 million (~$69,793). The ISGF has also agreed to dismiss the transaction fee.

To foster discoveries and peer-to-peer energy transactions using blockchain technology amid the rooftop solar prosumers, the state had earlier presented the concept in its Rooftop Solar PV Grid Interactive Systems Gross/Net Metering Regulations 2019 issued in January 2019.

Blockchain-based technology has been gaining increasing fame in diverse business segments across the world, including solar.
Last year, Singapore’s ‘SP Group,’ an energy utility group, launched one of the world’s first blockchain-powered renewable energy certificate marketplaces at the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Energy Business Forum (AEBF).

Earlier, Mercom stated that ‘Swytch,’ another U.S.-based blockchain-driven clean energy company, endorsed a deal with ‘Chuncheon,’ the capital of Gangwon Province in South Korea, to decrease carbon emissions in the city.