Blockchain is a transparent, secure information storage and transmission technology. It is a secure, distributed database containing the history of all exchanges made between its users since its creation: it is shared by its various users, without intermediaries, enabling everyone to check the validity of the chain. There are public blockchains, open to all, and private blockchains, whose access and use are limited to a certain number of players. In addition to cryptocurrencies, blockchain has numerous applications in the supply chain, healthcare, digital identity, asset transfer (real estate titles, shares, bonds, etc.), the Internet of Things, etc. Democratisation and decentralisation of the utility marketplace could be a key driver for the adoption of blockchain.
Highlights
In 2021, the total spending on various blockchain solutions worldwide reached $6.6 billion. According to Statista, the global spending will reach nearly $19 billion by 2024. However, the commercial added value of the technology could be much higher, reaching $176 billion by 2025 and exceeding $3.1 trillion by 2030, according to Gartner estimates. In 2017, a McKinsey study determined that blockchain could increase industry productivity by up to 9% and boost cost savings by 7%, all by simply improving progress tracking and the accuracy of cost and schedule estimates.
Challenges and opportunities for DSOs
As a certification tool, blockchain technology could contribute to the creation of new services:
- Certification of green and local consumption, obtaining consent from customers to give new service providers access to their energy data, confidential calculation to produce inter-sectoral balances on multi-DRM, DSO/TSO perimeters, development of services in energy DataSpaces, etc.
- Monitoring transactions, including peer-to-peer (P2P) exchanges, on transactive energy markets.
- Automated certification of field work carried out by different contracting companies.
EDSO Considerations
- DSOs must follow technological and regulatory developments related to blockchain in order to make the most of these advances to improve their operational performance.
- Blockchain technology consumes a lot of energy. In the context of global warming, this point needs to be improved to make this technology compatible with the ecological transition.
- Blockchain cybersecurity raises new problems that have to be addressed.
- DSOs, which are responsible for metering data, could take advantage of blockchain to carry out this task more effectively.
Last update: 28 September 2023