Los Angeles and Zug, Switzerland — 27 October 2020 — Today Community Electricity, an advanced energy community developer, and Energy Web jointly announced a partnership to bring the benefits of affordable, low-carbon energy to disadvantaged communities across the Americas.

U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden’s $2 trillion Climate Plan — based on the previously introduced, Democrat-led Green New Deal package — designates that 40% ($800 billion) of the plan’s spending flow to disadvantaged communities. The Community Electricity and Energy Web partnership will position these same communities to be at the forefront of the energy transition by equipping them with decentralized, digital technology, making it easier for them to participate in low-carbon energy markets.

The partnership will initially focus on three projects: one in Los Angeles County, California, USA; a campus microgrid in Bogotá, Colombia; and another in Medellín, Colombia’s second-largest city. In each project, Energy Web and Community Electricity will deploy digital infrastructure across multiple power plants, customers, and distributed energy resources (DERs) to enable multiple applications leveraging the Energy Web Decentralized Operating System (EW-DOS).

“With flagship projects spanning North and South America, it was an easy choice to partner with Energy Web as the global leader in energy blockchain tech,” said Felipe Cano, Community Electricity’s CEO. “We know that disadvantaged communities disproportionately bear the burden of air pollution and negative health impacts from burning fossil fuels, as well as heightened mortality risk from exposure to extreme heat with the climate crisis. Together, Community Electricity and Energy Web can help to bring them the benefits of digital technology and clean, low-carbon electricity first, rather than last, in the energy transition.”

The project in Los Angeles County is funded by the California Energy Commission (CEC) and focuses on the neighborhoods of Basset and Avocado Heights, located in the San Gabriel Valley. These majority-Latinx communities have suffered from pollution from three major freeways and industrial businesses adjacent to the project site. In July, a $9 million grant was awarded “to demonstrate an advanced energy community that will provide affordable, locally produced renewable energy and energy services” through the Commission’s Electric Program Investment Challenge (EPIC). California-based nonprofit The Energy Coalition is the primary grantee on the project, which will provide locally produced renewable electricity to 235 households through a community solar tariff structure. The project will also provide 50 homes with no-cost solar and residential battery storage, and develop an electric vehicle (EV) mobility service, EV charging infrastructure, and a community carbon management system. Other partners include UCLA, Enel X, Grid Alternatives, and sonnen.

“When we talk about Energy Web’s mission to accelerate a low-carbon, customer-centric electricity system, it’s hard to think of a better scenario than applying our technology and solutions to disadvantaged communities,” said Jesse Morris, CCO of Energy Web. “Leveraging decentralized, digital technologies are essential for making sure that the energy transition benefits everyone.”

Meanwhile, the project in Medellín — known as Transactive Energy Colombia — is similarly bringing fleets of low-carbon assets to low-income and otherwise disadvantaged neighborhoods. Led by Colombia’s Universidad EIA and EPM, Medellín’s utility, the project is focused on creating a series of local energy markets using combined solar-and-storage systems deployed on low-income households and a community-owned solar array in Comuna 13, previously known as one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the city.

In addition, 60 renewable generators will be connected to the largest microgrid in Latin America located at the Universidad Nacional in Bogotá. When the project is concluded, Community Electricity will have deployed 121 renewable facilities making the project the first-of-its-kind ‘energy community’ in the Americas.

“We are very excited to bring the Americas together. We need a new and optimistic vision for the world, and we are committed to lead this intercontinental strategy that aims to start exchanging innovation across California and Latin America, in which unlimited talent and innovative opportunities are emerging,” concluded Cano.

About Community Electricity
Community Electricity is an advanced energy community developer; a digital 21st century micro-utility that designs, finances, builds and manage community virtual power plants, community microgrids, community smart solar, community EV mobility and community carbon management; a key innovation — a first in the industry — is interconnecting these systems to a blockchain middleware to certify and mine data at the point of origin, creating monetized value on behalf of its customers.

About Energy Web
Energy Web is a global, member-driven nonprofit accelerating a low-carbon, customer-centric electricity system by unleashing the potential of blockchain and decentralized technologies. EW focuses on our open-source, decentralized, digital technology stack — the Energy Web Decentralized Operating System (EW-DOS) — to enable any device, owned by any customer, to participate in any energy market.

EW launched the Energy Web Chain, the world’s first enterprise-grade, public blockchain tailored to the energy sector and the anchor of the broader EW-DOS technology stack. As the industry’s leading energy blockchain partner and most-respected voice of authority on energy blockchain, EW has also fostered the world’s largest energy blockchain ecosystem, comprising utilities, grid operators, renewable energy developers, corporate energy buyers, IoT / telecom leaders, and others. More than 30 of those companies host validator nodes for the EW Chain.

For more, please visit https://energyweb.org.

CONTACT
Peter Bronski, Energy Web
+1.201.575.5545 | peter.bronski@energyweb.org