Power Ledger is an Australian blockchain-based cryptocurrency and energy trading platform that allows for decentralized selling and buying of renewable energy, released in May 2016 with the goal of disrupting the global energy industry by enabling local areas to sell and distribute solar power to their neighbors without the help of Middlemen. It is a technology company that uses blockchain to facilitate energy and environmental commodity trading.^[1]

Power Ledger operates on two blockchain layers and uses two coins, the Power Ledger (POWR) token and Sparkz, which offer different functions. The platform itself uses the public Ethereum blockchain and a private consortium blockchain known as Ecochain.^[2]

Overview

The platform provides consumers with access to a variety of energy markets around the globe and is meant to be scalable to various energy infrastructures and regulations. The market is based on a dual-token ecosystem operating on two blockchain layers, POWR and Sparkz.^[3]

History

Power Ledger was founded in May 2016. That same year the platform went live with proof of concept deployments in Auckland New Zealand and in a retirement village south of Perth, Australia and was publicly announced on 11 August 2016 by chair Jemma Green and managing director Dave Martin.^[1]

On 24th of August the company announced that it would utilize Ecochain technology to store energy readings.^[2]

Power Ledger's white paper was officially released in a company press release on 27 July 2017. In the white paper, the company revealed an ERC-20 Ethereum-based token called POWR, which would be implemented into the Power Ledger platform, and Sparkz, on their own Consortium Ethereum Network.^[3]

The company maintained that demand for POWR tokens would increase as the platform user-base grows, thereby changing the price of the token and allowing for the exchange of POWR tokens for Sparkz tokens.^[1]

Additional partners

• National Lifestyle Villages (11 August 2016) - a sale and rental company for village communities

Funding

The company launched its pre-sale on 27 August 2017. In three days, over 100 million POWR tokens were sold, with 25% sold in the first hour. An extra 5% of tokens was awarded to every transaction that took place during the pre-sale. Power Ledger raised $17 million AUD during its pre-sale, which ended on 3 September 2017.^[1]

Public sale of POWR tokens officially began on 6 October 2017, during the company's Initial Coin Offering (ICO). An additional 150 million POWR tokens were offered during the main sale. On 6 October 2017 the company had reported that it had raised over $34 million AUD ($24 million USD) overall during its ICO, including the amount raised during the pre-sale. A reported 15,000 supporters backed the token.^[2]

On 17 November 2017 the company announced in a press release that the Australian government had awarded $2.57 million AUD in grants for a two-year research project to take place in the City of Fremantle. The project is expected to be Power Ledger's first examination of the potential of blockchain technology in integrating distributed energy and water systems. Seven additional project partners contributed a combined value of $5.68 million for the project for a total funding of $8 million. The project was the second largest recipient of the 2017 Smart Cities and Suburbs Program award, a $50 million grant from the Australian government supporting innovative smart city projects.^[1]

Power Token

The POWR token allows application hosts and participants to use the platform itself. When a host does not have the right amount of POWR, they cannot access the platform. POWR is traded through the Ethereum Smart Bond exchange.^[2]

POWR tokens allow consumers and hosts providing energy to interface with the ecosystem and are protected through Smart Bond technology. POWR tokens can be converted into Sparkz tokens, which can be used for frictionless transactions in the energy exchange market.^[3]

The initial coin offering for POWR tokens became the largest crowd funding project in Australia and the 14th highest in the world.^[1]

What Makes Power Ledger Unique?

Power Ledger has six products: Power Port, uGrid, xGrid, C6, C6+ and Asset Germinator. All of these products provide different energy solutions through the use of the blockchain. Users can buy and sell energy on the existing electrical grid. They do this through peer-to-peer transactions.^[2]

Team

Power Ledger (POWR) was co-founded by Dr. Jemma Green, Dave Martin, John Bulich and Jenni Conroy.

Dr. Jemma Green is the executive chairman of Power Ledger and is also a board member at the Water Corporation and an advisory board member at Carbon Tracker.^[3]

Dave Martin is the managing director at Power Ledger. He is also a committee member at Sustainable Energy Now and the director of Evolution Road.

John Bulich is the technical director at Power Ledger. Before that role, he was a co-founder and director of Ledger Assets and a director at WA Property Investments.^[2]

Jenni Conroy is the company secretary at Power Ledger. She is also the managing director of Future Effect. Before these roles, she was a manager wholesale regulatory & compliance at the Synergy electricity generation and retail corporation.^[1]