Australian blockchain energy firm Power Ledger has announced a partnership with previous collaborator BCPG to create a renewable energy credit (REC) marketplace in the Southeast Asia region.
BCPG is the renewable energy arm of BCP Group, a Thai state-controlled energy company operating in a number of Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam and Indonesia. Power Ledger specializes in creating blockchain technology that enables innovative renewable energy solutions.
The two firms have previously worked together on projects such as a peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading network in the T77 urban precinct in Bangkok.
RECs are effectively subsidies that one can pay to energy companies for feeding a certain amount of renewable energy into the grid. Thus, they incentivize energy companies to upscale the degree of renewables they produce and allow firms and individuals to state that certain amounts of the energy they consume come from renewable sources.
In this instance, RECs of 1MW will be available to purchase as outlined by the International REC Standard (I-REC), generally viewed as the global standard.
A common concern with RECs is the potential for duplicate usage, resulting in multiple actors claiming to be using the same MW of energy.
To address this issue, Power Ledger’s blockchain-enabled platform will track the issuing, trading, and retiring of RECs and store this information on a blockchain. Power Ledger will also help with issuing RECs, which will be based on values taken from the meters installed as part of the two firms’ P2P project.
Jemma Green, co-founder and Executive Chairman of Power Ledger, said that its “blockchain-enabled technology provides a secure and accountable platform that can audit and streamline the buying and selling of renewable energy.”
Power Ledger comes to this project with experience in establishing REC marketplaces. Earlier this year, it announced it was beginning a similar project in the USA, alongside M-RETS. It has also completed trials for a blockchain-enabled RECs marketplace with KEPCO, which is Japan’s 2nd biggest energy firm.