Having covered the three forces that are currently holding back mass adoption of P2P Energy, there is one thing that will follow with the development of P2P Energy. When P2P Energy picks up, we will have to deal with Trading Agents. Or really, we will want to deal with them over the alternative.
Installing P2P Energy at Home
Let’s assume we have tackled the challenges that are holding P2P Energy back; the market, the legislation and the ease of use have greatly improved. P2P Energy is installed in your house; the future has arrived.
First Trade
With your newly installed service, you want to initiate your first trade. You see that you have some kWh from your solar panels left unused and consider it would be good to sell those via this P2P platform. Having set your selling conditions, you explore potential buyers on the market, select the highest bid and confirm a sale. You have just sold your first kWh using P2P technology!
Next Trades
The first time I can imagine it would be ‘fun’ or ‘entertaining’ to do this by hand, but most consumers will not be actively trading for every kWh; they have better things to do!
Welcome to P2P Land
P2P Energy has promised a lot, disrupting traditional intermediaries, cheaper energy, etc. But they should not lead to people having another day job, buying and selling energy at home.
When P2P Energy becomes a Day Job at Home
If you have to be actively involved in the trade for every kWh you need, you will quit on this P2P Energy system. More so if you also have to check and verify that every kWh you purchase, is produced sustainably. Checking the validity of these Certificates of Origin (CoO), or Renewable Energy Certificates (REC) can be a challenge in itself already.
Why not let some automation do this for you? The entire chain of administration is now fully digital, so that has to be possible. Let some automated trading agent, trade on your behalf while you go about your regular business. How would that work?
The P2P Energy Bot
An Energy Trading Bot would automatically trade on your behalf. You would specify upfront a range of parameters (minimum selling price, maximum buying price, sustainability criteria, etc.) and the bot would go out and do the work for you. This bot would act as a collection of algorithms, or be an app for most people.
There will likely be different apps from energy companies, each to tailor to its niche of prosumers/consumers. Would this make changing your energy supplier as simple as downloading and activating a new app? The competition will focus on the best app for different categories of consumers. The app is a value-added service that utilities could offer, but is also open for new entrants.
The Rise of the P2P Energy Trading Agents
Apps like this are bound to happen; nobody in their right mind will want to have such a high level of involvement for every kWh traded on the market. In the end, we will rarely see them work; we will select them based on what we find meaningful and make a switch when a better alternative becomes available. A trading agent is one of the services in the energy industry that could help current players have a role of relevance in the future, instead of being disrupted into oblivion. Want to have a shot at remaining relevant in the future?
