Within a Local Energy Community (LEC), two or more digital meters of LEC members can be offset against each other to form a single net consumption. This is an administrative procedure: one kilowatt-hour generated but not consumed at location X can be represented by one token. By transferring these tokens to another member within the LEC (member Y), Y's meter reading can be reduced by 1 kilowatt hour. It is therefore not about the physical exchange of energy, but about the exchange of representations (tokens) of energy in an administrative process.The research group is testing a blockchain application to facilitate this transaction with smart contracts. Thus, surplus energy can be exchanged decentrally, peer-to-peer.
