At the moment, the energy sector is heavily regulated and enjoys a certain lack of transparency. Furthermore, the new EU regulation states that prosumers (a consumer who also produces energy) are very important as a new way of producing and consuming energy. With new technologies, such as distributed ledger technologies, the opportunities are endless.

The continued progress of technology brings many opportunities to improve traditional industries and rethink current approaches. Innovations, such as blockchain and the internet, make energy systems more intelligent and better benefit consumers. This increasing digitalization can transform how people engage with these utilities by bringing control and transparency back to the end-user.

In the current metering & allocation setup, every commercial grid connection has a meter and associated allocation point. Balance responsible parties (BRPs) are responsible for maintaining supply and demand on the energy market within their portfolio. Together, all BRPs represent all connections within a scheduling area (for example, the Netherlands).

As the BRPs work on expected production, consumption, and external trade, differences between supply and demand may occur using reconciliation to correct the disparity. New technology, such as smart meters and DLTs, allow for real-time energy allocation based on actual energy consumption.