Grid Balancing powered by Blockchain
Learn how blockchain technology could be effectively applied to stabilize power grids.
What is grid balancing?
Grid balancing refers to the management and adjustment of electricity supply and demand on an electrical grid in real-time or near real-time. It involves ensuring that the production of electricity matches the consumption at any given moment, maintaining grid stability, and preventing blackouts or other disruptions.
Grid balancing becomes particularly important with the integration of variable renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power, which are subject to fluctuations due to weather conditions.
Balance between electricity generation and consumption
Power grids in Europe need to maintain a “heartbeat” of 50Hz. This heartbeat can drift when energy supply and demand are mismatched — causing cascading issues and even damage equipment. Bitcoin can act as a controllable load for primary and secondary frequency response.
The Problem
To deal with the unreliability of intermittent renewable energy, power grids need dispatchable generation sources of electricity that can be dispatched on demand at the request of power grid operators, according to market needs.
Batteries are good deployable dispatchable generation, and we need more of them, however batteries have limitations. Even the largest batteries in the world cannot solve all of the challenges on modern grids.
Other forms of reliable power generation, such as hydro and nuclear could be dispatched to backup the grid, however their resources would sit wasted and unused when they were on standby. For example, nuclear reactors are not flexible and can take hours to come online.
Blockchain data centers can turn an inflexible power generator into dispatchable generation by absorbing the standby power when no one else needs it and instantly turning down when the grid needs the power. No other technology can match this rapid responsiveness.
Data Mining usefulness, as a technology to monetize energy, merges perfectly with Demand Response on modern smart grids. Price signals from grid operators are instantly sensed by Blockchain data centers, making them like noise cancelling technology for energy grids.
The Solution
Are you interested?
If you want to know more about how blockchain technology can help balancing the grid, then get in touch with us!
