Where was Apple’s IoT stuff and blockchain for the electrical grid

This week on the Internet of Things Podcast Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel I discuss the Apple news (or lack of it), a dangerous security flaw in Bluetooth that looks really bad for the internet of things, and answer a question about upgrading a 15-year-old alarm system. Stacey then chats with David Martin, a co-founder and managing director of Power Ledger, about blockchain technology and the future of the electric grid.

Martin sees the energy grid bifurcating into a larger, nationwide transmission grid and a smaller, local grid comprised of a town or homes in a neighborhood. At the local level, the rise of renewables and batteries for energy storage mean that these homes can trade electricity among themselves with the generator getting paid. Today, excess solar capacity for example, is just dumped into the grid and the person who generated it gets nothing. For the nearby home who could now buy the power, they’d get a cheaper rate. On the whole, such a system starts to promote greater resiliency at the local level.

The mechanism for all of this is the blockchain. Power Ledger has developed its own distributed ledger technology that tracks who’s producing energy and who is consuming it. It then ties that back to a financial value so people and energy companies are paid. For the details, check out the interview that begins at 34:45 in this week’s podcast.

Listen to the podcast here: