Siemens, the massive technology conglomerate, has announced a partnership with Blockchain Startup LO3 to focus on Microgrids. The goal of the collaboration is to jointly develop microgrids that enable local energy trading based on blockchain technology.

LO3 Energy is a New York-based startup that develops distributed energy solutions. The innovative project is built using the Ethereum blockchain and technology stack (including smart contracts) to allow fast, secure, unalterable execution of transactions.

Under this new partnership, Siemens will provide expertise and infrastructure to develop new solutions in the energy sector. Specifically, the conglomerate will provide the resources of the “next47 unit, which was established in October 2016, as part of an ecosystem for partnerships with startups to take a leading role in the evolving decentralized energy system market”.

Ralf Christian, CEO of Siemens’ Energy Management Division, said:

The constant evolution at the grid edge requires advanced control, automation and data analytics technologies enabling secure, stable and reliable integration of decentralized energy systems as well as supporting the establishment of new business models. We’re convinced that our microgrid control and automation solutions, in combination with the blockchain technology of our partner LO3 Energy, will provide additional value for our customers whether on the utilities side or on the prosumer side,

Lawrence Orsini, founder of LO3 Energy, explained that in the financial sector, Blockchain solutions are rapidly advancing, but not so much in the energy area. For Orsini, this market is totally unexplored:

With our microgrid solution in Brooklyn, we’ll demonstrate just the beginning of what blockchain can do in the transactive energy world.

LO3 recently associated with the software venture production studio ConsenSys to create a solution called TransactiveGrid in Brooklyn, NY. The “experiment” allows two solar panel owners to sell their excess of energy to their neighbors in a circuit comprised of 15 households. The company also filed a patent on peer-to-peer energy exchange.

However, the Siemens press release indicates that this project will expand to new places:

This solution will enable blockchain-based local energy trading between producers and consumers in Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill, Park Slope, and Gowanus neighborhoods, as well as balance out local production and consumption.

The resources that only a huge conglomerate such as Siemens can provide, will be a major stimulus for further development of energy solutions using blockchain technology.