Paying bills to a utility company is a drag, isn’t it? They hike the prices up and aren’t interested in the small people who have to pay the bills.
Take Duke Energy, for example. It’s one of the largest utility companies in America, and serves approximately 7.3 million electricity customers. We’d be talking about billions of dollars in bills, here.
Wouldn’t it be fantastic if you didn’t have to have a provider? No swapping around for the best deals, no annoying sales pitches, and best of all, cheaper prices. Cheaper prices!
It’s a possibility.
Brooklyn – A new project.
A new project in Brooklyn has seen residents being fitted with solar panels, which allows them to collect and trade unused energy. Need energy? Buy it off your neighbor!
This isn’t a joke – it’s already been implemented in Germany, where it’s reported that there are over 8,000 producer-customers. Imagine that! 8,000 people producing their own energy, where they can then sell it on a micro-market to their neighbors. WITHOUT a utility company. It’s easy to imagine that the utility companies aren’t very happy about it. Without a doubt, it is stepping on their toes.
Other countries are set to try it, and The Brooklyn Micro-Grid are hopeful that it can be rolled out and emulated in other countries. In 2016, reports circulated regarding India’s electricity crisis, where more than 300 million people didn’t have access to electricity. Imagine if this project was rolled out to countries that have similar issues, where poverty is rife even in the dawn of 2017.
In Bangladesh, it’s estimated that around 35 million people don’t have access to a central grid. This means that the rural households can sell their unused electricity into a network, where the neighbors can purchase it through their phones.
Their aim – To create peer-to-peer trading on Blockchain.
(Blockchain is the distributed ledger technologies behind the controversial Bitcoin. While Bitcoin is noted for its ties with the block market, it could be part of a globally groundbreaking project). The idea is to create this independence and bypass the utility companies. It is also Brooklyn Micro-Grids promise to reduce energy loss by using this system, thus making it more resilient to weather and terrorist attacks. In terms of the ‘Zombie Apocalypse’ rating, it’s definitely an improvement for the future.
By purchasing it from your neighbor, you’re establishing a need system whilst also being able to supply them to fulfill that need. Psychologically, it has to make an impact on the community spirit, and certainly will boost the moral.
It is a game changer. Utility companies, beware indeed.