Digitalisation of PV Self-Consumption in Energy Communities with Blockchain

In 2023, Escan launched an initiative to enhance self-consumption in collective solar photovoltaic (PV) projects within energy communities. By implementing incentivisation mechanisms, the project encourages users to adapt their consumption patterns based on local PV production, electricity market prices, and grid conditions.

Harnessing Blockchain for Smarter Energy Use

At the core of the initiative is the use of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), specifically Blockchain, to enable secure and transparent transactions. The system leverages personalised messaging, token-based rewards, and smart contracts to optimise energy use. Smart metering systems and PV inverter ports collect real-time data, which is then processed through a mobile application that provides users with insights and tailored recommendations.

By aligning energy consumption with peak PV production times, participants can reduce electricity costs, strengthen the business model of energy communities, and contribute to grid stability. Escan, in collaboration with ENERCOOP and Verdia Legal, under the LIFE InEExS project, has played a key role in designing and implementing this model, monitoring results, and providing capacity-building to energy communities located in Spain.

Preliminary results in 2023 demonstrated the model’s effectiveness, leading to annual energy savings of 0.1 GWh, renewable energy production of 0.7 GWh, and an estimated reduction of 206 tons of CO2 emissions. A full-scale implementation is planned for 2025, expanding incentivisation mechanisms to several collective PV consumption systems with a total capacity of 486 kWp.

Empowering Users and Strengthening Communities

Beyond energy savings, the initiative fosters the digitalisation and independence of small energy market players while addressing common barriers to energy community participation. These include regulatory complexities, high initial investment costs, financial risks, and limited financing knowledge among institutions. Additionally, energy community management can be challenging, as membership changes may disrupt energy-sharing arrangements. To overcome these hurdles, expert guidance and robust support mechanisms are provided to ensure long-term sustainability.

The project also offers direct benefits to users, such as lower energy bills and improved energy efficiency. Even non-participants in collective self-consumption are encouraged to align their consumption with production, reducing network losses and increasing overall local electric grid efficiency. The project further contributes to reducing municipalities’ CO2 footprint, and this service is provided without any initial costs to customers.

Empowering Energy Communities

With a planned total investment of €5 million in energy communities in Spain, the initiative aims to enhance decentralised energy management, grid stability, and community energy independence. By minimising transmission losses and raising user awareness, the project is expected to cut distribution grid losses and improve self-consumption efficiency, reducing energy losses by 6% and overall energy use by 5%.

This project represents a major step forward in making energy communities more efficient, resilient, and sustainable.

This best practice is extracted from our publication ‘Sustainable Regions in Action‘. Discover more best practices here!