The blockchain activity within the energy sector is high, and the list of use cases is continuously growing. The distributed and immutable nature of blockchain technology could potentially be leveraged to accelerate the ongoing transition to more decentralized and digitalised energy systems and to address some of the challenges the industry is facing. However, blockchain is an emerging
technology and it is seen as a critical uncertainty by many incumbents as the challenges and opportunities of implementation are still largely unknown. There is thus a lack of knowledge and scarcity of decision-making tools for understanding why, when and how the technology can add profound value. This study sets out to explore how utilities can evaluate and prioritize among blockchain-based use cases and gain practical knowledge about how blockchain could be implemented.
In the first part of the study, a broad initial scope was applied as a large part of the blockchain-based use cases within the energy market were inventoried and grouped into clusters based on their overall area of use. Each cluster was analysed and evaluated to best fit both the strategy of the commissioning company and the criteria for using blockchain technology. After the first stage of the use case evaluation approach, four clusters most suited to the specified selection criteria were selected. These
are P2P Energy Trading, EV Charging & Management, Grid Stabilization & Management and Environmental Commodity Management & Trading. Given a final evaluation based on the overall maturity of the clusters, EV Charging & Management and more specifically, the use case of Emobility Roaming, was prioritized and selected for further evaluation given the high market relevance of the use case. In the second part of the study, both the business and the functional layers of the e-mobility roaming case were investigated. By adding an additional blockchain layer to the current solution, four scenarios for blockchain implementation were identified. Several observations were made from the development of the scenarios and the evaluation of their impact on the business and the functional layers within the e-mobility market. It became evident that many of the current functions and processes could be automated with the use of blockchain. As the technology allows for instantaneous settlement of transactions, the current manual and time-consuming process of exchanging charge detail records and the following billing and settlement functions could be removed. This further has implications on the market environment as some of the responsibilities of the incumbent market players could become obsolete. By evaluating the scenarios based on the technology, market,
customer and regulatory aspects it became clear that the scenarios based on a permissionless blockchain are further away from commercialization in the energy sector due to the volatile nature of cryptocurrencies, scalability issues, and regulatory constraints compared to a permissioned consortium blockchain. On the other hand, these scenarios are easier to start exploring until the technology is
mature, since it does not require any initial investment to start building Proof of Concepts for educational purposes. In conclusion, the industry interest and dedication towards blockchain is high as both incumbents and start-ups are investigating the potential of the technology. However, given the high complexity of the
technology, it is essential for companies to evaluate both the technology and the applications before initiating projects and taking investment decisions. It can additionally be seen that while blockchain has a significant potential to provide scalable and automated solutions with lower transaction costs,
the technology is currently not mature enough to do so. There are still issues concerning scalability as well as a lack of a coherent policy mix in place limiting the development of commercial applications. However, as the adoption of EVs is increasing and interesting technologies such as machine-tomachine payments and inductive charging are being investigated, value lies in taking a proactive stance and to start exploring scalable and automated solutions.