“Many people believe that decentralization means loss of control. That’s simply not true. You can improve control if you look at control as the control of events and not people. Then, the more people you have controlling events — the more people you have that care about controlling the events, the more people you have proactively working to create favorable events — the more control you have within the organization, by definition.”
Wilbur L. Creech
The digital transformation of energy represents a unique opportunity for the general public and local communities to directly participate in the emerging green economy and develop new business models that reflect a rapidly developing new ecosystem to measure and generate value. For over 100 hundred years commercial, industrial, and residential customers have had limited choices for energy supply while closed and centralized systems prevented active participation in choice of energy generation source and distribution networks. The rise of distributed energy resources, smaller power sources that can be aggregated most notably solar panels, advantaging the declining costs of technology and broad base of deployed assets provide the opportunity for local energy generation and distribution. The infrastructure exists to build a new digital economy for these emerging networks of renewable energy generation and distribution but it requires tremendous network participation, regulatory and utility partnership, openness to developing digitally driven business models and the technical expertise and oversight to execute.
KwhCoin is a cryptocurrency backed by a kilowatt hour of electricity that aggregates the energy usage data of distributed energy resources that voluntarily participate in our advanced energy economy. KwhCoin is the native token for a decentralized application where prosumers, consumers and other distributed energy resources can connect and configure their energy resources. The community token model is a relevant application with the Kwhcoin backed by a kilowatt hour of electricity on the platform it aligns the interest of all community members and holders of the token. Our community of distributed energy resources will consist of virtual and physical assets. The virtual assets can be defined as network participants that contribute the data of their distributed energy resource and generate digital work that contributes to the generation of a deliverable kilowatt hour of electricity on the platform.
Here is an example:
A solar community in San Jose, California decide they want to pool their collective renewable generation resources to create a local renewable energy economy that will promote the generation of 100% renewable energy sources and they want to build a system to measure output so they can be rewarded for their contributions. The solar community members place their energy usage data on our blockchain which builds a ledger tracking generation and consumption outputs of the solar community members. Each community member has a digital wallet to hold their Kwhcoins and once a excess energy generates amounts to a kilowatt hour of electricity the Kwhcoin is automatically paired to the digital wallet. Energy excess represents collective generation of the solar community enabling them to serve as a virtual power company for the community assisting with the localized generation of electricity reducing transmission costs for the utility also removing layers of carbon intensity related to the centralized transmission process.
The physical assets will consist of microgrids, commercial and industrial projects, as well as other strategically positioned assets to build a comprehensive network that is flexible and versatile for deployment.
The future of energy generation and resource collaboration will be distributed in nature and the localized energy generation and distribution provide tremendous benefits both economically and environmentally. The Kwhcoin network intends to provide a platform that incentivizes and compensates activity and work contributing to renewable generation from a local source. Local energy generation reduces the losses and extends the lifespan of existing transmission infrastructure. Transmission is the most expensive and the most carbon intensive and environmentally straining component of the grid components and requires comprehensive solutions. In 2015, U.S. electric utilities spent $103 billion in capital expenditures to maintain and upgrade the grid, and they now expect average annual spending of around $100 billion through 2018, even as growth in electricity demand slows. Local electricity generation and the empowerment of prosumers with clear compensation and incentive mechanisms present a unique opportunity to provide a solution that democratizes value and distributes choice and direct involvement for us all as we transition to a new decentralized renewable energy economy that has the potential to be all inclusive.
The future of energy is renewable and digital and Kwhcoin and its network aim to provide incentive and compensation mechanisms to help encourage more investment into renewable energy lowering the cost of solar while also empowering and democratizing value at the edges of the grid. We want to lower the barriers so that we ALL can directly participate in this exciting new and emerging advanced energy economy that places the desired environment and economic outcomes of the grids edge (ALL of US) at the forefront.