The U.S. Department Of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is partnering with blockchain startup BlockCypher for peer-to-peer (p2p) energy transactions facilitated via blockchain.

NREL and BlockCypher aim to demonstrate how energy transactions involving distributed energy resources (DER) can be settled across multiple blockchains and integrated technologies. This would mark the first blockchain and energy technology agnostic solution.

“The technology developed in this project enables people to exchange renewable energy, peer to peer. This would be important in a natural disaster or when the grid goes down for extended periods, just like we’ve seen last year across the U.S. This technology is also important as energy consumption continues to grow with more people using electric vehicles and battery powered devices,” BlockCypher Head of Growth Karen Hsu said. “Peer to peer energy exchange could improve the match of generation and demand, reducing under voltage or brownouts during peak energy usage.”

The project involves demonstrating how p2p payments can be facilitated and settled on the Dash network between test homes in NREL’s Energy Systems Integration Facility. It would be the first such initiative which would enable buying and selling of energy in Dash.

“By enabling smart meters with the ability to exchange digital currency for electricity, we can make the grid more efficient and stable by enabling the monetization of stored energy and energy production at the endpoints of the grid. It can also help avoid costly infrastructure upgrades if our grids can operate more efficiently. Dash is uniquely fit to facilitate these payments, because it is designed to scale to massively large transactions while maintaining very low transaction costs,” CEO of Dash Core Ryan Taylor said.

Last year, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), a DOE national laboratory located in Washington, started exploring blockchain application in the management of next-generation power grids.

“NREL has been working with utilities, regulators, and other government agencies to leverage DER to enable a more cost effective, environmentally friendly, and efficient electric grid. Blockchain technology presents a transformative and highly scalable platform for enabling distributed energy markets, which could enable DER to interact more effectively with the larger grid. These interactions include more efficient demand response, capacity reserves, power quality support,” said Dylan Cutler, Senior Engineer and Principal Investigator for the project at NREL. “NREL and BlockCypher will show how peer to peer payments can be facilitated and settled on the Dash network between two test homes in NREL’s Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF). The project will ideally then be scaled to include utility interaction and multiple homes on a feeder.”