Power Ledger partners with Silicon Valley power grid to tackle renewable energy’s ‘duck’ problem

Australian blockchain-based energy trading startup Power Ledger is partnering with the Silicon Valley power grid to work towards incentivising drivers of electric vehicles to charge their rides during the day, rather than at peak times.

Silicon Valley Power, a not-for-profit utility owned by the City of Santa Clara, will implement the Power Ledger platform to track the movement of energy from solar farms to a multi-storey vehicle charging facility.

The result will be a kind of ‘audit trail’ of power, which will be used to support proposed changes to the low-carbon fuel standards (LCFS) programme that would incentivise drivers to charge their vehicles within certain times, using incremental credits.

Having a digital record is also intended to reduce the time and cost of processing LCFS credits.

According to a statement from Power Ledger, it is hoped any incentives will help address the so-called ‘duck curve’, or the dip in demand on electronic grids that occurs during daylight hours.

At night, demand on the grid spikes, as people use more electricity. Increased numbers charging electric cars in the evening has placed even more pressure on the grid.

Power Ledger first entered the US market in February, when it partnered with not-for-profit energy company Helpanswers to roll out hundreds of projects across North America.

In April, the company announced a trial partnership with the second-largest electricity company in Japan, Kansai Electric Power Co.

Founded in 2016, Power Ledger is something of an Australian crypto-startup success story, raising $34 million in its initial coin offering in October last year.

This latest project comes as part of Power Ledger’s partnership with the Clean Energy Blockchain Network, and marks the Australian startup’s first carbon credit project.

Power Ledger co-founder David Martin said in a statement: “We’re excited to demonstrate how the platform can assist with cutting both costs and carbon in a simple manner with a secure and clean energy source.”

NOW READ: Ten Australian blockchain companies raising millions and disrupting industries