“Pylon Network, the blockchain platform that will lead the energy self-consumption in Spain, after the repeal of the sun tax”

Last week the Spanish media outlet, Observatorio Blockchain, wrote an article about Pylon Network and its position in the Spanish market, highlighting the latest regulatory changes in the Spanish energy law, in respect to self-consumption at both household- and community-scale renewable generation.

We have have put together an English translation of the original article (found here, in Spanish), which follows.

Enjoy the read!

Pylon Network, the decentralized platform that uses blockchain technology to facilitate the exchange of energy between people (P2P) , works at full speed to boost self-consumption of energy in Spain. The recent repeal of the so-called sun tax, which opens the door for “producer users” to exchange energy with traditional power companies, finds Pylon Network, with the duties done.

Thus, Pylon Network becomes the symbol that underlines the leading role of users (citizens) in the next energy revolution . As it happens in other sectors, in the energy sector too, blockchain also places users at the heart of the market. Gerard Bel , CEO and co-founder of the company, explained to Blockchain Observatory that Royal Decree 244/2019 - which regulates the administrative, technical and economic conditions of self-consumption - facilitates the creation of new business models with retailers , energy service companies/providers, as well as communities and local energy neighborhoods.

Bel specifies that the Royal Decree favors the creation of local energy communities and will enable the possibility of energy exchange between different users that meet one of the following specifications included in Section G of Article 3:

• i) connected to the internal network of consumers, associated or linked to them through direct lines,
• ii) connected to any of the low voltage networks derived from the same transformation center (medium-voltage), or
• iii) both generation and consumption point(s) are at low voltage and at a distance among them less than 500 meters.

For the last scenario iii), Article 3 specifies that the distance between the measurement equipment in its orthogonal projection on the floor, at the points of both, generation and consumption, will be taken into consideration.

All these specifications make Spain, according to the CEO of Pylon Network, one of the leading countries to follow the directive of common standards for the internal electricity market of the European Parliament (voted on March 26).

Regarding the strategy they will carry out to raise awareness of the company, Bel told this newspaper that in June they will launch a tariff optimization tool for consumption and another dimensioning / budgeting tool for self-consumption installations (aka. prosumers). Both tools aim at helping users (consumers and prosumers) understand and know what is best suited to their needs. Consumers interested in participating in the pilot program can subscribe to the pylon-network.org newsletter.

Pylon Network has also developed an energy data management tool for businesses in the sector, in order to facilitate the instigation of personalized offers to final consumers with a single click. “In this way, we will understand better the needs of the final consumer, which will help us design our B2C tools and approach” says Bel. On the prospects of implementation in Spain, the CEO of Pylon Network explains that they are creating an energy database as neutral and transparent as possible.

Share data to receive customized services

“With this, we will be able to create an ecosystem, where consumers can authorize the sharing of their data to other actors of the energy sector in exchange for customized services. In other words, we are creating a model in which we have placed the consumer at the heart of the business. Our objective is that it is her who has the power of decision. For this, we have created easy, fast and intuitive tools without hidden information”.

Regarding its competitors in Spain, Bel states that: “We have positioned ourselves as the enabler for the creation of ecosystems, since without a completely neutral, accessible and secure data layer it is impossible to create models of local energy communities. Any company or actor in the energy market can use this database to create in turn their own ecosystems and thus contribute towards the empowerment of the end user.”

Pylon Network, the first blockchain renewable energy exchange platform that also has its own payment method, the pylon-coin, also acting as an incentive and investment mechanism for green energies, was financed by the launch of an ICO in the fall of 2017 .

Pylon Network has been able to get here thanks to the collaboration of GoiEner, a cooperative based in the Basque Country. Until the derogation of the sun tax, the cooperative’s trading arm was the only way to be able to trade electricity in Spain.

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(Big thanks to Observatorio Blockchain — Twitter: @ObserBlockchain)