UK homes receive traceable renewable energy through P2P exchange

Households across the UK have been the first to sign up as part of a new peer-to-peer (P2P) energy exchange programme to receive traceable renewable energy from local sources. 

The programme - a collaboration between Rebel Energy and UrbanChain - aims to provide 100 per cent green energy to British homes and drive the country's energy transition amid a cost-of-living crisis. 

More than 3,000 homes have already joined this new form of energy provision and will be able to trace the source of their energy to the UK site where it was produced, via a "unique" AI and blockchain platform, the company has revealed.

Rebel Energy will supply energy while UrbanChain runs the P2P exchange. 

“The only way to move the energy transition forward is to decentralise the generation of energy," said Dan Bates, CEO of Rebel Energy. 

“People increasingly want to know exactly how their energy is generated so that they can make informed choices. We are working together to make the electricity supplied to customers fully traceable to the UK farm where it was produced.”

The usual way for people to receive electricity is from the National Grid, but only about 40 per cent is currently generated from renewable sources like wind, solar and hydro, according to reports.   

The homes participating in the P2P exchange are spread across the UK, including in Scotland, Wales, Manchester, Birmingham, London and the South-West, and will be supplied renewable energy from a combination of solar, wind and hydro assets in their specific localities.

“It truly is a first as green energy up until now has always been affected by ups and downs in the gas market," said UrbanChain CEO Somayeh Taheri. "And that’s because renewables are intermittent and green energy is fed into the wholesale market before customers buy it back at much higher prices. This model has fundamentally remained the same and has continued to see consumers hit with rising bills.”

The two companies hope that this collaboration will promote a "more predictable energy market," and help address rising fuel poverty in the UK. 

Last May, the UK energy regulator said it expects the cap on energy prices to rise 42 per cent from its current level of £1,971, after the cap increased in April by 54 per cent, from £1,277 in October 2021.

As a result, Ofgem chief executive Jonathan Brearley warned that the number of people in fuel poverty might double in the next few months - defined as households that spend over 10 per cent of their disposable income on energy - taking it to 12 million. Moreover, the Resolution Foundation’s analysis suggested that the number of families living in fuel stress would rise from five million to 9.6 million.

“Why should renewable energy be the privy of those who can afford it?" said Rebel Energy’s Dan Bates,

"Part of our mission is around fuel poverty, a mission we also share strongly with UrbanChain. We want to enable every household to be able to take advantage of the energy transition. And for them to receive fairly priced energy.”

At present there are circa 28 million households in the UK that take electricity.