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Press Release22 October 2020Siemens and AÜWZug/Kempten

Electricity trading based on blockchain launches in German municipality

Consumers – also the customers – can define preferences for electricity purchases, such as the percentage and price for electricity from local photovoltaic and wind energy systems. With funding from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, the goal of the pebbles project is to demonstrate that bottlenecks in the grid can be avoided through local energy and flexibility trading, therefore lowering the costs associated with the energy transition. 
Commenting on the launch, Andreas Feicht, State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, said: “The pebbles project is impressive proof of how different stakeholders from science, industry and the public sector can work together on an innovative solution. This makes a vital contribution to the government’s energy and digital policy goals as well as to the energy transition in the Allgäu region.”
Sabine Erlinghagen, CEO of Digital Grid at Siemens Smart Infrastructure, said: “The digital platform used for pebbles connects producers, consumers and storage facilities so they can optimize the way they locally trade energy and flexibility with each other. This allows systems generating power from renewable energy sources to remain economically attractive after government subsidies run out and continue to produce CO2-free power and feed it into the grid in a way that benefits the entire system.”
Michael Lucke, CEO of Allgäuer Überlandwerk, added: “As a regional energy supplier, we have been involved for years in numerous projects for the future of local energy. We don’t wait for solutions; we develop them. When asked why as an electricity supplier we’re developing a platform that would make us ‘superfluous’ in the electricity trade, I happily answer: ‘If we don't do it, somebody else will, because the market demands it’. We would rather act as an innovative platform operator that supports the energy transition than stay out of the game.”
The electricity market is currently undergoing a radical transformation. The ways we produce, consume, store and share electricity are changing fundamentally. One-dimensional energy systems where suppliers transfer energy to passive objects are being superseded by smart multi-dimensional models where previously-passive consumers become active consumers or even producers. With the aid of controllable loads or energy storage devices, they can also inject flexibility to balance fluctuations in electricity generation. The path to decarbonization chosen by the German Federal Government requires a continued increase in the percentage of electricity from distributed producers. With the conversion to e-mobility and heat pumps, the number of electrical consumers and the demand for electricity will increase at the same time. These changes can cause temporary bottlenecks in the power grid as well as power fluctuations that need to be addressed. 
This necessitates intensive expansion at certain points in the distribution grid, which is associated with high costs. Innovative projects, such as pebbles, show grid operators real alternatives to cost and time-intensive expansion of the grid. At the same time, they meet the requests of end users for a more active role in the energy system. 
Project partners Siemens, AÜW, grid operator AllgäuNetz, Kempten University of Applied Sciences, and the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology (FIT) have jointly developed the platform, management systems and app, taking grid limitations, and production and load forecasts into account. 
Electricity trading based on blockchain launches in German municipality

Siemens and the Allgäuer Überlandwerk, together with their project partners, are developing a local electricity market using block chain technology as part of the pebbles research project. The picture shows the Energiecampus on site. 

Electricity trading based on blockchain launches in German municipality

The local electricity trading platform is used for the first time in the municipality of Wildpoldsried in the Bavarian Allgäu region.

Electricity trading based on blockchain launches in German municipality

The aim of the pebbles project is to show that local energy and flexibility trading can help to avoid bottlenecks in the electricity grid and thus reduce the costs of energy system transformation. The pictures shows decentralized renewable power generation from wind turbines and photovoltaic on site.

Electricity trading based on blockchain launches in German municipality.

During the platform’s demonstration phase, private producers can use an app to market their electricity directly to local consumers without going through marketers or traditional grid operators.

For more information about Siemens Smart Infrastructure, see
www.siemens.com/smart-infrastructure  
For more information about the pebbles project, see
www.pebbles-projekt.de
For more information about the local energy market, see
new.siemens.com/global/en/company/stories/infrastructure/2020/p2p-energy-trading-blockchain.html

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Siemens Smart Infrastructure (SI) is shaping the market for intelligent, adaptive infrastructure for today and the future. It addresses the pressing challenges of urbanization and climate change by connecting energy systems, buildings and industries. SI provides customers with a comprehensive end-to-end portfolio from a single source – with products, systems, solutions and services from the point of power generation all the way to consumption. With an increasingly digitalized ecosystem, it helps customers thrive and communities progress while contributing toward protecting the planet. SI creates environments that care. Siemens Smart Infrastructure has its global headquarters in Zug, Switzerland, and has around 72,000 employees worldwide.
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Siemens AG (Berlin and Munich) is a global technology powerhouse that has stood for engineering excellence, innovation, quality, reliability and internationality for more than 170 years. Active around the world, the company focuses on intelligent infrastructure for buildings and distributed energy systems and on automation and digitalization in the process and manufacturing industries. Siemens brings together the digital and physical worlds to benefit customers and society. Through Mobility, a leading supplier of intelligent mobility solutions for rail and road transport, Siemens is helping to shape the world market for passenger and freight services. Via its majority stake in the publicly listed company Siemens Healthineers, Siemens is also a world-leading supplier of medical technology and digital health services. In addition, Siemens holds a minority stake in Siemens Energy, a global leader in the transmission and generation of electrical power that has been listed on the stock exchange since September 28, 2020.

In fiscal 2019, which ended on September 30, 2019, the Siemens Group generated revenue of €58.5 billion and net income of €5.6 billion. As of September 30, 2019, the company had around 295,000 employees worldwide on the basis of continuing operations. Further information is available on the Internet at www.siemens.com.

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Contact

Eva-Maria Baumann

Smart Infrastructure

Freyeslebenstr. 1
91058 Erlangen
Germany

+49 (9131) 17-36620

Stefan Nitschke 

AÜW

Illerstraße 18
87435 Kempten 
Germany

+49 831 2521 405