On March 7, Bangchak Corporation Public Co. Limited an oil refining company announced that it was testing an energy trading platform that is blockchain based and a commercial energy microgrid.
BCP implementing a blockchain-based microgrid
According to the news release, the blockchain based platform is currently under testing in a major shopping mall associated with one of BCP’s fuel station s in Bangkok. The new system will combine a 280.9kW commercial rooftop with canopy solar photovoltaics and a 913kWh lithium-ion, manganese cobalt oxide as well as 92kWh lithium-iron phosphate energy storage. The platform has the capacity of meeting the needs of the BCP fuel station as well as generating, storing and distributing energy to the shopping mall.
The platform was designed and implemented by Leonics is being called Green Community Energy Management System, and it will be hosted by Ethereum blockchain. It will run as an “experimental sandbox system” for the commercial microgrid that BPC can deploy in its gas stations as well as commercial businesses. Its objective is to establish the capabilities of GEMS in the company’s fuel stations in Thailand.
According to Leonics Managing Director, Wuthipong Suponthana, they chose BCP because of its capability to operate microgrids as well as implement the GEMS. He added that the cost for energy storing systems is decreasing which has created the opportune moment for implementation of a microgrid. The system will benefit users by enabling them to cut on pollution as well as growing energy costs which is a big concern among users in Bangkok. The microgrid is isolated physically from the city’s Metropolitan Electricity Authority grid, but it nonetheless operates in tandem with it.
The government of Thailand supporting decentralized technologies
The Thia government has been supportive towards cryptocurrencies and development of decentralized systems. At the beginning of this year, the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre used a blockchain solution to conduct e-voting. The NECTEC indicates that once implementation of 5G gets realized they will connect all votes using the blockchain technology. The National Assembly passed changes that will see tokenized securities being offered on a blockchain by the end of the year.
