Distributed Ledger Technology in Energy Services: The InEExS Project Objectives and Approach

The digitalization trend is prominent in a wide variety of sectors, and the energy sector is no exception. The incorporation of blockchain, a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), in energy services has been examined in literature and quite a few endeavors of DLT adoption in energy applications have been implemented by companies, universities and other organizations. The European LIFE project “InEExS” pursues to apply DLT through specific business cases, so as to offer improved digital energy services and encourage energy efficiency. In this paper, a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis has been conducted as a first stage of DLT potential usages evaluation in the contexts of the InEExS, with the purpose of demonstrating the reasons why blockchain could support the digitalization of energy applications and acceleration of energy transition, while pointing out the most important barriers that should be addressed to ensure that DLT integration would be truly beneficial. The decentralized nature of blockchain, combined with the transparency and safety it provides, make it a very promising technology for energy management and trading implementations, among others. However, technical constraints, such as the scalability problem, security threats, as well as sociopolitical and regulatory barriers should not be neglected. The findings of our SWOT analysis are combined with an assessment of prospective blockchain usages in the business cases deployed by the InEExS, so that the best practices to optimally exploit DLT in various energy applications, within and beyond the project, are identified.