Use-case for Community Electricity on the Blockchain

Let's assume you and I are neighbours living in a community of 100 houses. Most of those houses produce their own energy (photovoltaic), but not all. A micro-grid forms between the 100 houses and the consumption and production values of each is loaded on a blockchain.

A simple software program then calculates an exchange price, to be paid out in any currency that is valuable to the community and it's each individual members.

If the community is not self sufficient and needs to buy electricity off the regional or national grid, then this transaction is managed on the blockchain as well. Individual members will use fiat (or another type of) money to buy it.

If there is over production, community sells to the grid (at the price that the grid expects), and use the proceeds to fund new investments, ex. in storage equipment, maintenance etc.

All energy transactions are loaded on the blockchain.

So why Blockchain?

It is of course a legitimate question to ask – why load all transactions on a blockchain and why not just put a single webserver where all the transactions are consolidated, and everyone accesses this central server under an https://www URL?

Several advantages come to mind, and all can be challenged.

Resilience

A single server is not only a single-point-of-failure, but also a single point of control. This could be the local community council, which is corruptible, and subject to assuming the profile of a power-structure.

Information is centralised, and information is an instrument of power for the consolidator and custodian of it.

On a distributed structure, the computer software is programmed to perform the routine actions, such as maintain production and consumption records, the give & take transfers, price etc, in realtime. This relieves the community members to focus on the production and consumption, and of course, daily life.

Btw., the blockchain software is opensource, hence can be validated by anyone. And it can be shared with any/every other community that has similar goals.

Independence

If 40 of the 100 houses wish to organise themselves into a separate micro-grid, they can break away by simply settling their balance with the old one, and start from a reset of zero on the new one.

This is total independence, but also reenforces a certain community-thinking into every family's decision making. Gone would be the days of not knowing or caring about those living in our 100m radius.

Real Vote

Every house has a vote on the blockchain, in a community decision, that can be put up by any member, at any time. All votes are recorded across every blockchain node, hence cannot be manipulated. And did I mention, it's not necessary to wait for 5 years for this decision to be considered by the community?

One other consideration that could be factored into this scenario is that of influence, for better or worse, of democratic decision-making by use of propaganda/mass-media.

Mass Communication

In a small community, it is possible to vet the source and quality of information being publicised.

It can be anticipated, that the 100 community members strive to stay educated about issues impacting their daily lives, as also that of their neighbours.

Summary

So there you go – transparency, autonomy and community – those seem to be the promise of the blockchain in this relatively simple use-case of PV-electricity sharing.

Would you like to live in such a community? Or would you prefer to delegate these big decisions to large power companies? Is it too much of a hassle to gain and maintain community-autonomy? What are your views of a blockchain based decentralised decision making, the role of big corporations, the government and that of the private citizen?