I own a software company in the utility space and we deal with meter vendors, AMI vendors and utility companies all the time (and have for 10+ years). While I believe there is a kernel of truth in what you are designing, I believe you're a bit naive in believing that energy and water consumers have any real stake in this process. Utility companies own the generation, the wires and the meters, and are the only entities that have the capital to roll out this type of infrastructure (and even then, most utilities struggle to pay for the significant costs involved in upgrading). You would have to sell these blockchain enabled devices to utilities - as consumers are not going to be able to change their meter types themselves in most jurisdictions.
And while the consumers may want flexibility concerning whom they buy energy from - most deregulated markets allow them to do this today. While they don't get to pick their generation provider directly, they do in a round-about way when they choose the retail entity where they purchase their power or water.
Purchasing energy and water from a "live auction" is a solution without a problem. This is what is referred to by marketing types as a "low involvement category". Consumers don't want to be heavily involved in this purchasing decision. They want to set it and forget it. There are variations (prepay consumers have to maintain a balance on their account, and make more buy decisions on a monthly basis - typically 3-5 times per month), but the standard customer just wants to pick a price once a year and be done with it.
I'd be interested though in how this leads to lower transmission fees on the side of the power line owners? Those fees are typically charged on a cost+ basis. Where does blockchain remove added cost? You say "we might be able to lower...". Sounds like you don't have a strong business case yet.
Madkins, it is nice to hear that you have some experience in the field of the power industry.
And that you took your time to review our white-papers and the subject alone. (if you did
Myself, I've been to all the significant conferences related to SmartGrid environments which happened to take place during the last 2 years. If, you were at the recent SmartGridComm 2017 conference in Germany last year you would have seen the result of a competition among all the student in Germany for a video which would present a technology most suitable for the Smart Grid environments.
Guess what was the winner's video about ?
It was EXACTLY the model which we incorporated in GRIDNET based on REAL-TIME auctions
Everyone at the table at which I was sitting was looking at me saying that it seems like an intro to our technology.
Mark my words - we are not here alone. We've been having discussions with major companies and what you see is the result of talks with multiple people from the field. The acceptance rate for the recent SmartGridComm was around 30%. We did it.
Madkins, with all due respect, I think, - your assumptions are wrong.
You said "Utility companies own the generation, the wires, and the meters, and are the only entities that have the capital to roll out this type of infrastructure"
See, that's the monopolistic view to which large so-called 'utility companies' are used to. If, you were familiar with the situation in the United States, it is completely and totally different. Power transmission companies are usually different from the power generation ones.
I encourage you to look up the company SmartWires.com, check out their white papers and calculations to see how routing of energy is allowed to SIGNIFICANTLY lower costs related to energy transmission especially their role in congestion avoidance. We've already discussed many details in the matter also with people involved in the SmartWires project.
You are right that user does not want to take an active role in the selection of their power provider. Users want to pay the lowest cost possible. And that's what our eco-system allows for.
Noone said that user will be required to sit by the smart meter selecting from whom to buy the energy to make coffee in the current 15-minute time slots. Let us be realistic. As stated in our white paper the user will be able to include his PREFERENCES inside of the heuristic running on the SmartMeter (or his iPhone... details will be shown in next white papers. Trust me, you are going to love this).
"Purchasing energy and water from a "live auction" is a solution without a problem. " You might say as well that there's no point in changing you mobile tariff every each year. It is just because you might be wealthy or ignorant enough not to do so. You might not want a 4K tv since you are perfectly fine with 1080P. But there are people who want better, there are people who want their home economics to be more efficient.
You might own of a software company. I also owned a software company for 5 long years who dealt with security, reverse engineering etc. Luckily besides IT, I've also studied economics. There is a heavy pressure from the EU for instance toward the decentralization of resources. We no more want single companies to own power generation and transmission. Why? Because it's inefficient.
But let's say that's the current state of matters. So now what. Is the GRIDNET eco-system unsuitable? No. It would feet perfectly fine lowering the bureaucracy and management fees. As you will see in one of the white papers to be published by Elsevier where we review many of the additional aspects.
I hope I've shed some light on the matter. In case you've got any other ideas/ questions/issues please do not hesitate for a moment to ask.
By looking at our project you might see what's wrong with the attitude presented by WePower. Their attitude is similar to banks wanting to make a profit from cryptocurrencies. Sure a private blockchain will lower the costs for inter-bank transactions. But we all know why Bitcoin was established in the first place:) DO they like the real reasons and possibilites ? Honestly, I do not think so.
Flexibility is the major thing missing in the current energy market. And in the ability to manage the power flows inside of the Grid. Flexibility. It is the key.
I'll point you to specific whitepapers in a couple of minutes.
P.S It is worthy to note that the devices which we are working on do not accept commands ONLY from the blockchain. But... let us wait for the latest whitepaper. (unfortunately, it will take many months before it is made public)
