Renewable power is the way of the future and the proactive have already taken the quantum leap towards renewable energy sources and self sufficiency, and while others continue to buckle under mounting utility costs the proactive enjoy the rewards of their efforts with free energy and a rebate for selling their excess energy back into the grid.

A positive step forward.

However the urgency to reduce our carbon footprint much faster has inspired burgeoning technology that will take us a step further, allowing the adoption of a power sharing network that will transform the acquisition and structure of how our current energy economy works at the same time as encouraging others to use and/or obtain their own renewable energy source.

Julia Buchholz and Leanne Nankivell from CoinSpotters and Johnny Swanepoel from Blockchain Perth had the privilege of chatting with the team from Power Ledger and Ledger Assets to find out how they are implementing this innovative technology that will transform centralized utility systems to decentralized sharing platforms with incentive towards a zero carbon future.
John Bulich, Technical Director of Power Ledger and Co founder of Ledger Assets, Gov van Ek, Director and Technical Development of Power Ledger and Co founder of Ledger Assets, and Sheree Ip, Legal & Compliance, took a slice out of their busy day to talk to us about their venture. The outstanding motivation and inspiration in this dedicated team is strongly reflected in Power Ledger's vision...

"We believe empowering individuals and communities to co-create their energy future will underpin the development of a power system that is resilient, low-cost, zero-carbon and owned by the people of the world."

With this powerful vision the Power Ledger team have created the Power Ledger Trading Platform Ecosystem with blockchain technology. They use blockchain technology along with smart contracts as the vehicle for creating the decentralized, distributed network whereby people can transact directly with each other for buying and selling power, which offers benefits especially for renewable energy owners who may be dissatisfied with current incentives, like the diminishing rebates over a set period of time.

The Power Ledger Trading Platform Ecosystem uses two tokens for trading.
The POWR token and the Sparkz token. The POWR token is needed to gain access to use the platform and to generate Sparkz. Sparkz is a local market token used for transactions within the Ecosystem and will represent the value of a unit of energy. Sparkz will be pegged to the currency of the country they are operating in i.e. 1 Sparkz = 1AUD. POWR tokens will be the global currency for Power Ledger Trading Platform and will be a tradable asset on the cryptocurrency trading platforms. The two tokens are interchangeable and also portable as the POWR token can be used anywhere in the world.

The Ecosystem has two models, The Retail Model and the P2P Direct model (peer to peer).
The Retail Model is structured to work with already existing markets. This model requires an Application Host (energy company) who buys the POWR token. Using a Smart Bond the Application Host generates Sparkz which is sold to the consumer who then buys power from the prosumer (renewable energy producer). Sparkz can then be redeemed through the Application Host for fiat money. The Smart Bond is a smart contract, that has an inbuilt code to enforce compliance of the contract bond parties.

The P2P Direct Model does not use an Application Host so the consumer and prosumer deal directly with each other, which sounds simple enough, but how does all this run smoothly?
Fusebox is the Application layer where "magic happens" - the Ecosystems architecture that allows for easy adaption of both models. Power ledger has run successful trails in New Zealand and Perth Australia.

All participants of the platform are rewarded for using the network with POWR tokens under a Green Energy Loyalty Rewards program.

From reading the whitepaper, it is clear that the current and future Power Ledger ventures are extraordinary. With Power Ledger the universal benefits of renewable resources have gone stellar, beyond grass roots green activism to installing worldwide, workable applications that benefit not only the retailer, the prosumer and consumer, but to revolutionize the whole energy sector!
Participants of the Power Ledger Platform can help change the world with POWR!

Power Ledger are having a token generation event, presale starts on August 22, 2017!
To participate details are here:
https://tge.powerledger.io/

Whitepaper:
https://powerledger.io/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Power-Ledger-Whitepaper-3.pdf

For more information on Power Ledger:
https://powerledger.io/

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About the team by Johnny, The Local Ledger Larrikan!

-- Gov van Ek Director and Technical Development of Power Ledger and Co founder of Ledger Assets, Enome.io, Uproov.com, PhD from the University of Manchester.

-- John Bulich Technical Director of Power Ledger and Co founder of Ledger Assets, Enome.io and Uproov.com.

-- John Bulich and Gov van Ek met at a go-kart race for parents at their kids school and have been working together since. Both these guys are renowned for their work in disruptive technologies and are featured in publications all over.

-- Sheree Ip is the blockchain legal and compliance lead to the group and also one of the most respected in her field.
A great host who helped us in understanding the legal minefields. She is also lectures at Curtin University and is a qualified practitioner.

-- Dr Jemma Green Co founder and chair is well respected for her great contribution to climate science and Blockchain. Known as a sustainability guru she has just spent several days with Sir Richard Branson at his Blockchain Summit on Necker Island.

-- David Martin manages the daily operations and commercialization of Power Ledger's technology, working to build the market acceptance of P2P trading.

David decided to shift into P2P trading for two reasons:

The first: "I was talking with one of my kids about the impact of climate change on natural bio-diversity and we came to the conclusion that changing ecosystems were also leading to reduced cultural diversity as we lost the emotional and physical links to the place we called home.
The second: I was leading an emerging technologies program for a major power utility and while we were doing great work, I could already see that as PV’s got cheaper and batteries became more common, the fall in energy consumption from the network would drive up prices leading to a disproportionate negative price impact on the people who were least able to do anything about it – the socially and financially marginalised.
It was then that I realised that encouraging greater uptake of distributed renewables by re-imagining the network as a trading platform could be part of the solution to both problems.
Low cost, low carbon, energy in the hands of the community. Real power to the people."

-- Jenni Conroy is Power Ledger’s Company Secretary and manages regulatory and business services, which includes development of products for Power Ledger’s Platform. Jenni has more than 30 years’ experience in the Western Australian energy industry, holds Masters Degrees in both Business and Commercial Law, and is the owner of Future Effect.

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Author: Leanne Nankivell
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