The idea is to facilitate payment processes to beneficiaries of a subsidy on electricity supply. As a goal, it has been established that the project will be completed in about 6 months.

The Spanish national electricity company ENDESA is preparing a project to manage the blockchain-based social bond on electricity supply. For this reason, the firm is having the tool developed by two technology development companies.

ENDESA is currently conducting the project, which is called Confía, jointly with the companies Ayesa and Izertis, as reported by several Spanish media, including the digital newspaper El Comercio. According to this source, these companies are working on the development of smart contracts and the configuration of the nodes that will maintain the network.

Additionally, the website and the application programming interface (API) would be under development. The deadline for the initial activation of the project would be next July, according to the medium specialized in electric networks smartgridsinfo.es. The project was presented at the beginning of this month to the Alastria Technical Committee, an association that promotes the digital economy through decentralized technologies in Spain.

At an early stage, the project would be available for a period of testing in the town of Malaga, through its Town Hall. The objective is that the same dynamic be progressively replicated by municipal governments in other locations.

It should be noted that the social bond, which is a subsidy for vulnerable families, seeks to ensure access to electricity. This tool promoted by ENDESA is aimed at allowing the city council to have access to the data of these families “from the first moment in which the payment defaults occur.”

When the company announced the project for the first time last November, it said that it could allow social services themselves to detect vulnerable customers and contact affected families to inform them of the social bonus, rather than vice versa.

One of the possible concerns about this type of project could be its impact on the labor sector, particularly in the opportunities of those that currently serve as a bridge between the authorities and the electric service providers.

In this regard, the blockchain chief at Izertis, Urko Larrañaga, considers that the proposal goes even further. He said that the company is talking about localizing such an elementary need for people’s lives such as electricity in the shortest possible time, as quoted by El Comercio.

Other ENDESA Blockchain Proposals

ENDESA had already had approaches with blockchain-based processes. For example, in February 2018, its participation together with Gas Natural Fenosa in the initiative Enerchain, a network for energy exchange processes, was announced. This project especially focuses on network management processes, the development of a “smart market” for the energy sector and peer-to-peer (P2P) trade.

Besides, the company added in 2017 more than 40 proposals received in its blockchain laboratory. The initiative intended was to search for blockchain-based solutions for the energy sector. Some of the projects went through P2P exchange systems or services for energy certifications.

By Alexander Salazar

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