The Asia Pacific (APAC) subsidiary of Chinese energy firm Narada Power Source is teaming up with Singapore startup Electrify to deploy blockchain and Internet-of-Things (IoT) solutions for energy trading and tracking across APAC.
Electrify has built a marketplace for electricity retail that uses blockchain technology to provide increased transparency and efficiency. The marketplace aims to make it faster and easier for both businesses and residential consumers to compare, select and transact electricity contracts.
The PowerPod is Electrify’s proprietary IoT device that tracks and audits energy production from small-scale producers before logging the data onto a blockchain, a key factor in peer-to-peer energy trading. The same data, along with other relevant environment information, will be able to provide valuable insights to parties both within and beyond the ecosystem. The company released the minimum viable product for the PowerPod earlier this month.
The partnership with Narada will see the Chinese firm deploy Electrify’s blockchain technology and PowerPod hardware through out APAC starting with Singapore, Australia, Japan, and Cambodia by the end of the year. The technology will enable traceability, real-time trading, and optimization of distributed energy storage assets across its operations in the region.
An Electrify SG engineer shows a PowerPod in Singapore.
The PowerPod devices will be deployed within Narada’s energy store platforms and will capture and present data on a dashboard in real-time, enabling the firm to accurately track the movement and price of energy against the spot price of electricity in the market.
As part of the agreement also, Narada and Electrify will jointly explore potential business and investment opportunities in solar Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) initiatives and will run a pilot project involving the installation of solar panels on residential and commercial rooftops.
Jonathan Tai, business development manager of Narada, said the energy intelligence enabled by Electrify’s technology will allow Narada to pursue an energy distribution system that contribute to a clean and sustainable environment. “Together with Electrify, we are confident in achieving this vision, introducing greater energy intelligence to the Asia Pacific market”, he said.
From left to right: James Wong, Head of Marketing, Narada; Martin Lim, COO, Electrify; and Jonathan Tai, Business Development Manager, Narada; May 31, 2018
Founded in 2017, Electrify raised US$30 million in March in one of the largest token sales from a Singapore company on record.
The startup claims it has generated S$10M in revenue with 60Gwh of electricity transactions to date, and is reportedly in talks with Japan for deployment in the country.
