Blockchain Enables New Power Market

Blockchain Enables New Power Market Blockchain Enables New Power Market Blockchain Enables New Power MarketFrom his research post at the Electric Power Research Institute in Knoxville, Tenn., Gerald Gray keeps his eye on the underpinnings of how electricity is produced and distributed by utilities across the grid. What he binnensees is changerapid change. Traditional generating stations that produce baseload power measured in hundreds of megawatts are either closing or struggling, unable to compete with inexpensive power produced by solar, wind, or natural gas-burning plants.To handle these multitude of distributed, small-bore sources, a new smart grid is developing, where small buyers and sellers of electricity may find a marketplace. But for that to break into the mainstream, a new ordnungsprinzip linking disparate generators, buyers, and sellers with fast and secure transactions mucksmuschenstill needs development.Many industry experts suggest that this new system could well be ba sed on blockchain, a digital technology commonly associated with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. There are several pilot projects moving in various market segments, but only a few are on the verge of true commercial operation.Theres lots of projects out there that are pilots, said Gray, who has been tracking blockchain since 2015. They are interesting but theyre bedrngnis quite the real thing. What is real is a project scaled to millions of transactions and thousands of users.However, the specific market demands of the energy sector have highlighted weaknesses in speed, security, and transparency in cryptocurrency transactions. Developers now are scurrying to produce solutions.The potential is huge. According to Ernst Young, more than $1 billion of venture capital has been tapped by a burgeoning group of startups looking to build the market. Still, the consulting firm believes a system to support a globally connected network of energy transfer, using smart devices to react to mar ket signals and securely send and receive data, is at least five years off and probably more.Recommended for You Energy Special ReportIt is kind of in the me too phase, Gray said. I think were all in the process of learning.Explanations of blockchain can make it sound impenetrable, but at its heart, it is a decentralized ledger to record and verify transactions. But rather than rely on a central entity to maintain or validate activity, blockchain runs on a large distributed network of computers and is visible to all users. In theory, it enables fast, secure, and transparent trading and transactions.In practice, the distributed nature of the system slows it down. The Bitcoin blockchain, for instance, now can process 4.6 transactions per second, well below a level needed for large-scale future energy transactions.One effort to bring the technology up to speed is being led by the Energy Web Foundation (EWF), a nonprofit founded in 2017 that now has over 100 affiliates ranging from majo r corporations like Shell to utilities to startups developing various apps to run off of a blockchain system. EWFs test network, codenamed Tobalaba, is scheduled to go live this month, and will begin actually processing transactions and flowing currency across the platform, said Jesse Morris, EWF chief commercial officer.EWFs approach was to develop a platform in conjunction with its affiliates, who represent a diverse group of players in the energy sector. Rather than use an off-the-shelf blockchain platform, Tobalaba has been customized based on input from EWFs stakeholders. The energy market requires a blockchain tailored to the sector itself, said Peter Bronski, EWF director of marketing.Unlike Bitcoin, which requires new coins to be mined through the energy-intensive process of solving a computationally complex problem, the Tobalaba system instead uses blockchain to record the provenance and track the ownership of renewable energy production, including details of source type, l ocation, time, and emissions. Existing systems to track those attributeswhich are critical to authenticating purchase and delivery of renewable energyare complicated and are centrally managed through a third party. Confirmation of certification can take weeks. The hope is that blockchain-based systems will speed the process and provide transparent and accurate tracking and trading.There have been some successful projects involving certificates of origin. Spanish utility Iberdrola used a platform developed by Madrid-based FlexiDAO on the EWF platform.Were essentially a bridge between the utility and the actual blockchain, said Joan Collell, FlexiDAOs business and strategy leader. All utilities are exploring blockchain technology now, but fruchtwein are still at the exploratory level. But they are starting to request positive business cases and real value. So we are starting with a simple use case.Iberdrola used FlexiDAOs Spring software to provide real-time guarantees of origin of re newable energy delivered to Kutxabank, a bank based in northern Spain. The energy was sourced from one hydropower plant and two wind farms. The utility reported the technology allowed automatic execution of smart contracts and eliminated intermediaries. Kutxabank officials also monitored the energy supply through a web-based interface platform.Tracking Small TransactionsProving certificates of origin is only one energy application for blockchain. More popular might be supporting a peer-to-peer network for customers to buy, sell, or trade power with one another, opening the market to ever smaller participants. Single family homes with solar panels, for instance, could sell excess power to another consumer, or buy it back if needed because a blockchain platform could support the slug of very small transactions that existing centralized systems cannot.Were going after the kilowatt hour, said EWFs Morris.Pilot projects are taking place around the world. In Norway, the giant utility Vatt enfall is experimenting with a private blockchain network to record energy transactions in which commercial or residential customers can sell power coming from their solar panels or batteries. And in the United States, the Brooklyn Microgrid project in New York City is entering its third year of operation and is recognized as the first successful peer-to-peer blockchain system.Built and operated by LO3 Energy Systems, the Brooklyn Microgrid connects about 60 rooftop solar sites in three neighborhoods, with about 500 people buying and selling over the system through a mobile app. It relies on custom-designed smart meters that communicate via LO3s Exergy platform, enabling locally generated renewable energy to be bought, sold, and delivered to a customer, said Lawrence Orsini, LO3s CEO.The goal of the Brooklyn Microgrid was to give people a choice over what type of energy they use, and prove a new model of distributed renewable resources. Orsini said early focus groups interested in b uying green energy were surprised there were no guarantees the electricity they bought from some suppliers actually came from a renewable source.The idea that you can get electrons from upstate to you is not very accurate, he said.The platform enables the real-time transaction of energy within the microgrid. Using the mobile app, customers can set a predetermined bid price for purchasing local energy, and so-called prosumersindividuals or businesses that choose to sell or trade power produced on their own solar panels or batteriescan sell their excess energy to the local market or continue to sell to the utility-owned grid. The blockchain-based system is used for communication, processing transactions securely.One of the bigger issues weve been grappling with in distributed networks is communications, Orsini said. Getting nodes to communicate effectively can be tricky.Utilities are also planning for blockchain. Recently, St. Louis-based utility Ameren announced a partnership with so ftware engineering firm Opus One Solutions to build a transactive market using the microgrid at the utilitys Technology Applications Center near the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.Amerens microgrid includes a 1-MW natural gas generator, a 1-kW wind turbine, 125 kW of solar generation, and 250 kW of battery storage. The company claims this will be the first microgrid capable of seamlessly moving distributed generation sources to the traditional grid, instead of operating as an island.The idea is to enable these distributed energy resources to communicate and make decisions on optimizing the energy mix and deciding if and when to move electricity to the grid.The first phase of the project will be simulated using models developed by Ameren followed by testing using the microgrids systems and controls. The goal is to create a simulated market with day-ahead, hour-ahead and 15-minute-ahead prices for energy at the locational marginal pricing hub from the transmission system o f MISO, the grid operator.Enabling New TechnologiesBlockchain also may prove itself in enabling the acceptance of electric vehicles. It is an interesting starting point, said EWFs Jesse Morris. He and others see the technology enabling fast transactions at charging stations because of its ability to handle large volumes of small transactions.Thats already happening in Europe and California.Another startup, eMotorWerks, is partnering with Germanys MotionWerk in California to create a peer-to-peer market for EV charging based on shared facilities. A mobile app, called ShareCharge, will connect EV drivers with residential and commercial EV charging stations and handle blockchain-based payments between drivers and station owners. The goal is to increase the availability of charging stations and decrease range anxiety.MotionWerk is a startup that emerged from innogy SE, a subsidiary of the giant utility RWE. Innogy was spun off in 2016 when RWE split its renewable and network operations into a separate utility.Other large players are also testing blockchain. The PJM Interconnection, which operates a grid encompassing much of the east-central United States, is testing a system in partnership with EWF to track, trade and verify renewable energy certificates, known as RECs. It already does so at the wholesale level, at the scale of megawatt hours.Jaclyn Lukach is vice president of PJM Environmental Information Services, the PJM subsidiary working on the project. She said certifying RECs is slow and time consuming.It could take a number of months after a REC is retired for external auditors to provide documentation, she said. So we are looking to see how that would be reduced. Were still trying to envision what this will look like.Lukach said blockchain has the potential to bring much smaller packages of energy into play from small prosumers at the kilowatt hour level. The PJM platform will also be built from EWFs software toolkit and will be open source so it can be m odified by any potential participant.The systems will first run in a simulated environment with no transactions or exchange of currency.Lukach said regulators are not involved because PJM is targeting the voluntary marketcustomers purchasing renewables to meet individual goals or marketing claims. The compliance market is different and regulators are beginning to note blockchains arrival.Illinois regulators already are pushing investor-owned utilities to include distributive sources into their generating mix and the grid.Other states, including New York, Minnesota, California, and Nevada, are introducing similar plans. In New Jersey, which sits on the edge of the PJM system, officials are working on a new energy master plan that relies on diversified sources to wean the state off of fossil fuel by 2050.Theres a lot of new technology developing and it is a little premature to judge things, noted Cynthia Holland, director of the Office of Federal and Regional Policy for the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. But it is happening in real time and there is a significant amount of regulatory uncertainty.Decentralized AuthorityEPRI notes a number of regulatory changes needing action for blockchain and distributive energy to move ahead. For instance, most current regulatory frameworks do not allow consumer-to-consumer trading of the sort conducted within the Brooklyn Microgrid project. New contract types will be needed to handle that type of electricity trading, particularly when the electricity is first sent to the regional electric grid. And a new framework would require new and more flexible electricity tariffs that now are heavily regulated.Smart contracts will also have to be finalized and put into the legal codenot only to comply with the law but to protect consumers. Since trust in blockchain-based systems is placed in technology itself rather than a central authority, ultimate legal and technical liability for negative consequences remains poorly defined. F or instance, if a successful hack into a decentralized energy trading system disrupts the flow of power, where do customers lodge a complaint?EWFs Bronski believes the issue will eventually resolve itself. At both the state and federal level were seeing a healthy interest in regulators educating themselves, he said.LO3s Orsini added I spend 30 percent of my time talking to regulators, and they have been open to the technology. Regulations in place today are going to change pretty quickly. What is necessary are proof points so regulators can see nothing is broken and there are real, viable results.You May Also LikeEnergy Special Report 2019The Chain GangRenewable Energy Experts Shine Light on Solar Farms and Grids

Employees Reveal What its Like to Work at Facebook

Employees Reveal What its Like to Work at FacebookEmployees Reveal What its Like to Work at FacebookCan you believe that Facebook was founded 12 years ago? In 2004, Mark Zuckerberg and four of his fellow Harvard classmates launched thefacebook.com website a social network for other Harvard students. In 2006, just Facebook opened its servers even to those who didnt make it to the Ivy League and became a global phenomenon.Today, virtually everyone is on Facebook, even your grandma.There are 3,5 billion netz users in the world and alfruchtwein half of them have a Facebook account. Thats a fairly substantial base of facebookers and the number is still growing.In the course of 10 years, Facebook has changed a lot. What started out as a chatting and photo-sharing network is now the most influential social medium.Facebook also significantly shaped the job market. Many people have jobs thanks to Facebook. And we dont mean only Facebook employees, but thousands of social media managers, onli ne marketers, PPC specialists and many others for whom Facebook and other social media have become their daily bread.Facebook is one of the top companies in the world to work for. It doesnt come as a big surprise really. Who wouldnt want to work for one of the most popular and most valuable brands in the world? Whats more, Facebooks CEO Mark Zuckerberg is the highest rated CEO on Glassdoor. Facebook currently employs more than 10K people and has offices in more than 60 cities around the world.Who wouldnt want to work inside the new Menlo Park, CA headquarters among the brightest people in the industry?Image source CNBCWhat are the best things about working at Facebook?1. SalaryMany reviews on Glassdoor highlighted the great salary people working for Facebook have. Some reviewers, who had previously worked at Google said Facebook pays its people even better.2. IndividualityWorking at Facebook is elend about obeying what the team leader says. Facebook employeesshouldthink for themselv es and bring their own ideas to the table.The company runs on similar principles as Facebook as a social medium. Facebook wants to keep its employees connected and open towards each other.3. Free food, drinks and snacksAccording to many positive reviews on Glassdoor, Facebook treats its employees really well. They can gorge on plenty of delicious meals and snacks all day long. Moreover, Facebook organizes various team-building events that the Facebookers love.4. Open cultureAt Facebook, they discussevery issue openly and with brutal honesty. Each employee gives and receives feedback, whether its good or bad. Employees often criticise their leaders.5. Team spiritThe whole office works as one team. Facebook doesnt like hierarchies managers dont behave as authorities, but rather as a part of the team.6. QA Sessions with the CEOMark Zuckerberg is the top rated CEO on Glassdoor and the Facebookers simply love his regular Friday QA sessions in Menlo Park, the headquarters of Facebook. Al l the employees have a say in internal issues and can point it out to the CEO himself.7. No fixed working hoursAt Facebook, nobody really checks your working schedule, what matters is your output and your performance at work. No nine to five kind of thing. If you have plenty to do, you work until youre done. On the other hand, if youre done for the day, you can go home.8. Family friendlyOne of the best perks according to several employees is how family friendly Facebook is. Both fathers and mothers get 4 months of paid family holiday with the certainty youll get your job back after youve taken care of your little one.Any drawbacks?So far, working at Facebook sounds like an absolute dream come true. There were, however, a couple of negative things the Facebook employees pointed on GlassdoorMany Facebook employees werent satisfied with their work/life balance. Despite many perks, theres a highunpredictability of workload. This often obliges Facebookers to work really long hours, few d ays in a row. Especially software engineers have a tough time during an on-call duty. As Keith Adams, a former Facebook software engineer, saysFor those weeks I dont leave town on the weekend make especially sure not to have one too many at any social gatherings I attend and most importantly, carry and immediately respond to a charged phone where I can be reached 24/7, including leaving the ringer on the nightstand as I sleep.Share Your Feedback or Ideas in the Comments

How to Write Resume for Dummies

How to Write Resume for DummiesHow to Write Resume for DummiesHow do I start?The most difficult thing is to start. Once you pushed yourself and you are actually writing, you should start with rough draft. Write down all the informations worth mentioning. This process may actually make you realise what kind of job you will be perfect for.Remember, you are not writing a novel. Be brief, but dont forget about anything importantWhat should be in my resume?To be as summary as possible, you should divide informations about yourself into several segments. For exampleContactThis segment should contain a basic informations about yourself, such as Name, Surname, Date of birth, Nationality, Address, Phone, Email and Web.It is always a good sign for HR agent, if you have a personal web site. It has to look professional and filled with relevant content. If you dont have one, dont worry. Your LinkedIn profile will do just fine. If you dont have a LinkedIn profile yet, dont hesitate and sign up now Work ExperienceAgain, have your resume specific and summary. It is a good idea to have a bulleted list of your previous jobs. Your work experience field(s) should containName of the companyTime spent in this company (e.g. 2009-2015)Your positionYour brief responsibilitiesEducationThis segment should be similar to the Work experience.Your education segment should containName of attended schoolTime spent on this school, for example (2012- Present)Brief field of studySkillsYour skill set has to be relevant for the job. Again, sort it to several skill segments. It should containLanguage Skillse.g.(English)(Spanish)(Russian)Software Skillse.g.(Adobe Photoshop)(Microsoft Excel)(Google Analytics)Other Skillse.g.(Music composition)The style of rating skills depends on the style of formatting. We will get there in a little while.What kind of job am I applying for?It is very important to have your resume suited exactly for the job position. Dont have just one universal CV for every job offer you get. There isnt thing such as universal resume. Every job requires different set of informations and formating.Formatting my resumeIt depends on a nature of your future job.Is it creative? Make your resume the creative way.. Rate your skills with stars, use good looking fonts, play with words and use playful design. Make your resume look over all different.Is it corporate job? Keep yourself on the ground. Use Arial or Times New Roman font. Show your boss the serious side of your personality.In every situation double or even triple check your grammar. Typos and grammar errors are the most common mistakes people have in their resume.Keep your resume short. HR agents dont have the time to go through several pages. 1 or 2 pages are optimal.Profile pictureIn some cases (countries) it is not required to include picture. You should do some research to find out about your exact situation.In case the picture is required, please remember that you are applying for a job. Avoid party pictur es, picture with other people on it or a picture taken from a distance. Use one with decent background with your face on it.What should NOT be in my resume?Dont make your font size too small in order to save some spaceDont use personal pronouns (e.g. I, me, we)Dont use false informationDont jump between different topics resume should be consistentUse action verbsStanford Career Development Center has created a great SAMPLE ACTION VERBS LISTED BY FUNCTIONAL SKILL AREA. It is worth going through while writing your resume.source Stanford Career Developement CenterDo you like this story? Share it with your friends.Share Your Feedback or Ideas in the Comments