Major United States energy firm Ameren and Canadian software engineering and solutions company Opus One Solutions will explore the potential use of blockchain technology. The participants announced the news in a press release on March 28. Ameren, which currently services around 2.4 million electric and 900,000 gas consumers, will examine blockchain as one of a range of options in its clean energy initiative. As of May 2018, Ameren was listed among the top 20 U.S. gas and electric utility firms, based on market value. Blockchain is set to feature in the firms’ so-called Transactive Energy Marketplace (TEM), a microgrid built using Opus One’s technology to improve supply and demand ratios. “Identifying the value local distributed energy resources (DER) can provide to our distribution system and the customers it serves, helps inform how and where customers should invest in clean renewable power,” Ron Pate, senior vice president of operations and technical services at subsidiary Ameren Illinois, commented in the press release. He continued: “Transactive energy markets will ensure that distributed energy resources are compensated appropriately, for the services that they provide.” The plans do not yet explicitly state how Ameren plans to leverage blockchain, yet come as energy providers worldwide turn to the tech to reshape their operations. As Cointelegraph reported earlier this month, Japan’s Marubeni has partnered with a blockchain firm, LO3, in its own bid to increase the automation and efficiency of its renewable energy offering. Prior to that, Fujitsu confirmed the positive results of a trial involving blockchain and another Japanese energy supplier, Eneres. Another scheme in February utilized Internet-of-Things platform Iota to develop a Proof-of-Concept for an autonomous smart energy grid in the Netherlands.
US energy company Ameren will partner with Canadian software firm TEM to explore the possibilities of blockchain in Ameren's Transactive Energy Marketplace (Opus One) microgrid. Opus One aims to identify the value of local distributed energy resources (DERs) and ensure their providers are paid fairly for their services. No precise details were released about how blockchain technology will be used.