EDP, the leading company in innovation in the Brazilian electric sector, becomes the first in the market to use blockchain technology for the measurement and recording of energy consumption and distributed generation coming from its consumers. The pioneer solution facilitates the process of managing the energy produced by the solar plants and consumed by the customers, the so-called ‘prosumers’, who consume and produce energy at the same time.

The project, created in partnership with the Austrian Innovation Leader Riddle & Code, is a proof of concept involving different types of users. It is a non-removable cryptographic tag that is attached to domestic energy meters to measure the co-consumption of each user, facilitating transactions and calculations for charging and taxing without the need to install an intelligent meter. Thus, it is possible to safely assign if there was an excess of energy or if there will be a discount on the invoice.

Among the benefits of the solution are the improved management of energy flow decentralization with the connection of the three agents involved: distributor, consumer and distributed generation plant; the ability to guarantee the veracity, transparency and traceability of data; and the possibility of registering the customer and perform the reading remotely in case of conventional meter. The design of the solution using Blockchain technology aims to ensure the scalability and sustainability of the entire system.

EDP's executive innovation manager, Lívia Brando, states that "the Company is very pleased to support this pilot project with Riddle & Code to allow the use of a technology we consider to be critical for the future of the sector. The implementation of this innovative solution will make it possible to transform a complex process into something simple, effective and safe for the parties involved, encouraging the use of distributed energy in Brazil”.

The project comes in response to the Brazilian legislation on the remote consumption of distributed energy, which has become a world reference. Under these rules, consumers can rent a quota from a solar plant that is not allocated on their land, and guarantee their own supply with renewable energy source.

"We have developed a secure, cost-effective and scalable solution combining EDP’s IT system with state-of-the-art blockchain technology. At the same time, we enable a completely new approach to business.”, says Alexander Koppel, CEO of Riddle & Code.