Company attributes
Energy Web (EWT) is a global non-profit organization that develops a low-carbon, customer-centric electricity system by unleashing the potential of open source decentralized technologies. EW focuses on building the core infrastructure and common technologies, accelerating the adoption of commercial solutions, and developing a community of practitioners.
In 2019, EW launched Energy Web Chain, the world's first open source enterprise blockchain platform tailored for the energy sector. The EW technology roadmap has since evolved into the Energy Web Decentralized Operating System (EW-DOS), a full stack that includes front-end applications and various software development toolkits. EW has also grown into the world's largest energy sector ecosystem of utilities, grid operators, renewable energy developers, corporate energy buyers and others, focused on open source decentralized digital technologies.
Energy Web (EW) launched in early 2017. We co-founded the globally respected think tank Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) and renowned blockchain developer Grid Singularity (GSy), as well as 10 founding subsidiaries. RMI and GSy, who today contribute to our board of directors (i.e. Fund Board), have seen the promise of blockchain in the energy sector. EW was born to make this promise a reality.
During the first months of EW, our testnet used the Kovan Ethereum public network, but by November 2017, we launched Tobalaba, our dedicated testnet built for EW. This was a time of heightened interest in the energy sector for blockchain technology. Between the second quarter of 2017 and the first quarter of 2018, the industry has invested about $322 million in energy blockchain startups. By early February, our own community had grown to 37 affiliates, and by the summer of 2018, we had appointed a founding CEO.
Then, as the energy sector began to view blockchain technology as a major opportunity rather than a groundbreaking curiosity or potential disruptor, the pace of growth accelerated. By March 2019, we had incredibly crossed the milestone of 100 partners. Meanwhile, affiliates and other partners have been wasting no time in implementing Energy Web, running proof-of-concepts, MVPs, and other solutions on Volta, our second-generation testnet, including in collaboration with PJM-EIS, SP Group, CNE Chile, Iberdrola, Aksiona, Elia, Stedin and others.
In June 2019, we launched Energy Web Chain, the world's first public and open source enterprise blockchain tailored for the energy sector. Engie's TEO was the first dapp to move into the real-time production chain, while companies like PTT in Thailand started to build new commercial solutions based on it.
Then, in December 2019, we announced a major update to our technology roadmap: the Energy Web Decentralized Operating System (EW-DOS). It is a stack of decentralized software and open source standards, including Energy Web Chain and various software development kits (SDKs). A month later, in January 2020, we announced the first major implementation of EW-DOS with the Austrian Power Grid.
As power systems around the world increasingly go digital, we are proud to be one of the leading partners helping energy market participants use decentralized technologies to support a low-carbon, customer-centric energy future.
By 2030, consumer investment in renewable energy, distributed energy resources (DER) and electric mobility will exceed utility investment in generation, transmission and distribution.
Renewable energy sources and REE will account for two thirds of the world's installed electrical generating capacity.
At Energy Web (EW), we believe that an open, public digital infrastructure will be as integral as the physical infrastructure for the safe and reliable operation of a highly decarbonized distributed power grid. Just as network operators have built and operated the physical infrastructure of the network for the last century, our vision is for network operators to invest, build and operate digital systems that
safely integrate millions and eventually billions of customer-owned DERs into core functionality. operations and planning.
Based on the business and technical requirements of the global energy community, the Energy Web Decentralized Operating System (EW-DOS) is a public, open source technology stack (including Energy Web Chain) for connecting customers, assets, and existing energy sources. IT and OT systems sectors with energy markets and programs. EW-DOS can be applied in any regulatory context or market structure.
We aim to make EW-DOS the de facto global standard for digital infrastructure in the energy sector. When EW-DOS is fully deployed, anyone - utilities, startups, individual customers - will be able to write an application on their laptop and deploy it instantly across the enterprise without the need for their own infrastructure. A decentralized network of EW-DOS nodes will provide all infrastructure needs (such as messaging, storage, and consensus)EW-DOS consists of three levels:
Trust that ensures consensus and immutability through the public Energy Web Chain;
Utility, the "middleware" layer of the EWDOS stack that makes it easy to create and use decentralized solutions; as well as
A toolkit that offers open source templates to accelerate application development for renewable energy markets, e-mobility programs and DER market participation.
EW-DOS offers a versatile, device-independent protocol for connecting clients, physical assets, and existing network infrastructure to a rapidly growing number of digital applications.
Within a given territory, EW-DOS provides local stakeholders with a shared state of the operational capability attributes of resources and network members. EW-DOS uses sovereign digital identities, decentralized identities, a range of decentralized registries, messaging services, and integration with legacy information technology (IT) systems to facilitate transactions between billions of assets, customers, network operators, service providers, and retailers.
To achieve our mission, EW develops and implements EW-DOS with market participants around the world. Since the first launch of EW-DOS in December 2019, we have worked on more than a dozen implementations worldwide, including the integration of small customers into wholesale balancing markets with Austrian Power.
Grid AG, launches next-generation renewable energy markets in Southeast Asia with PTT and in the US with PJM EIS, supports virtual power plants in Germany with sonnen, and builds an open e-mobility platform with Share & Charge.
Other members of the EW community such as Engie's The Energy Origin (TEO) in France and SP Group REC in Singapore also use EW-DOS for commercial applications.
Google supports Energy Web to harmonize low-carbon electricity markets across Europe
On April 13, 2021, Energy Web (EWT) received a €1 million grant from the Google.org Impact Challenge to establish a digital framework for the coordination of distributed energy resources (DER) in the transmission and distribution market of Europe's power grid. Climate-KIC, the EU's leading climate knowledge and innovation community, helped select the grant winners.
“This Google.org grant and the work it will fund to support a pan-European electricity flexibility market is the culmination of Energy Web’s mission to enable any consumer and any asset to participate in any energy market,” explained Walter Kok, CEO of Energy Web. “We can use the flexibility of prosumers to provide value throughout the electricity value chain to make distributed energy systems the backbone of the European grid.”
The initiative will focus on integrating the Energy Web stack with a range of electricity market participants, including but not limited to:
IoT Service Providers: To co-develop SIM cards with roaming capabilities in the electric power industry (i.e. independent of the mobile network operator) that will allow energy assets to directly register with the Energy Web technology stack.
OEMs: To allow new generations of energy assets to directly embed identities on the stack.
DSO/TSO: Once integrated, DSOs will be able to take advantage of the flexibility of the DERs connected to their networks and use them to provide flexibility. Likewise, TSOs will be able to simultaneously use DERs for regional/national markets to support safer, cleaner, and more sustainable electrical grids.
"We've received a huge amount of applications for the Google.org Climate Impact Challenge," said Rowan Barnett, Google.org's head of Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. “The Energy Web project is so interesting because it has a huge transformative potential not only for Europe, but for power grids around the world. We are seeing a glimpse of the future electricity system – one that is inherently decentralized and democratized.”
