Cutting Corporate Energy Bills: With Clean, Green Tech

The future of the energy industry must lie in the hands of innovative technology, says UrbanChain Chief Commercial Officer Dr. Mo Hajhashem.

During a trip to India, just a handful of weeks ago UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “There’s a lot of prejudice against the green agenda … Actually green technology, green, sustainable electricity can help to reduce bills.”

We all know that talk is cheap.

The Government must do more now to stop the deepening cost of the energy crisis that exists for homes and businesses alike. Bills are simply too high and there’s no end in sight.

A reason among many is the UK energy model having been broken for too long.

The reliance on gas imports – currently expensive for consumers – has led to energy becoming exactly what it shouldn’t be; a luxury.

A powerful and concise five-point plan by The United Nations has now emerged.

Its focus of “without renewables, there can be no future”, is designed to jump-start the renewable energy transition.

We understand at UrbanChain that the transition is far from simple. And we have known this since launching the peer-to-peer (P2P) energy exchange in 2017.

However, we have the solution for business consumers.

Our P2P green energy exchange is the only one in Britain.

Through artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies we have simplified complexities and have enabled corporate consumers to place an exact order for electricity and for generators to meet that order.

Our list of clients is long and includes private companies from multiple sectors, local authorities, housing associations and a variety of renewable asset owners.

These are the only players that matter. In the current and wider UK energy model there are too many middlemen and it’s the end user of energy that is hit with the rising bills.

In the P2P green energy, exchange participants buy and sell green energy amongst themselves in an alternative, safe, and unique energy market.

Our product is eChain, a peer-to-peer energy exchange system.

It takes care of profiling, aggregating, matching, balancing, settling, billing, and managing generation and consumption in the most accurate, transparent, and secure way.

Not only does it overcome the intermittency and fluctuation of renewables thanks to AI and blockchain.

It’s a platform and marketplace that directly connects corporate consumers of green energy with power producers while decoupling renewables from the gas market.

The result?

Consumers that are part of it buy 100% green energy and save at least 25% on bills. Renewable energy generators also get at least 25% better margins and earn more money in the medium to long-term. Journalist Hugo Dixon wrote a terrific ‘solutions-focussed’ article in May 2022 for Reuters. The headline; How the UK can cut power bills and go green resonated with us. An understanding of the complex environment yet making clear calls that will bolster energy security over a sustained period – and ultimately make people’s lives better while cutting energy bills for the business.

Make renewable energy technology a global public good – The United Nations

As mentioned, The United Nations published ‘Five ways to jump-start the renewable energy transition now’.

Point one is ‘for renewable energy technology to be a global public good’ – meaning available to all, and not just to the wealthy.

Within this the International Renewable Energy Agency states: “Essential technologies such as battery storage systems allow energy from renewables, like solar and wind, to be stored and released when people, communities, and businesses need power.

They help to increase energy system flexibility due to their unique capability to quickly absorb, hold and re-inject electricity.”

This is quite literally a barrier-breaking point as we must remove anything that blocks our ability to share technologies and knowledge if we are to come together in the UK and place us on a more prosperous path that will enhance people’s lives and our economy.

Point one by the UN ends with this: ‘Moreover, when paired with renewable generators, battery storage technologies can provide reliable and cheaper electricity in isolated grids and to off-grid communities in remote locations.”

Our CEO Dr. Somayeh Taheri was recently quoted in the media, a relevant contribution to end this post.

“In essence,” she said, “green energy is affected by ups and downs in the gas market.

“Renewables are intermittent and that green energy is fed into the wholesale market before customers buy it back at much higher prices.

“We have cut this out through the creation of the peer-to-peer market.”

“There is a cost of living crisis and energy bills are playing a very significant role.

“We started UrbanChain five years ago with a mission to alleviate fuel poverty and to fix a broken inefficient energy market model.”

“It’s a model that fundamentally remains the same and sees consumers hit with rising bills.

“As the only British renewable energy exchange we are the future of the energy market,” she said.

“And we are here now, have been for a while.

“With that in mind, corporate entities are of course reviewing their energy use in line with net zero targets and we are well positioned to onboard them into the renewable energy exchange given the number of renewable energy generators we have in our exchange.”