The ideal power system, said Richard L. Kauffman, who as the governor’s chairman of energy and finance is leading
that effort, is one that combines large power plants and transmission lines with clusters of smaller-scale producer-consumers, “where electrons can flow in more than one direction and supply and demand of electricity is dynamic — and that’s different than the grid is today.”
Peer-to-peer power sharing is consistent with that vision, he said, though a number of regulatory changes are necessary for it to take off.
“It takes a central procurer — in this case, historically, the utility — out of the mix,” she continued, “and really sets the market where they’re not buying and selling to the utility
but they’re identifying each other’s need and willingness to buy and sell.”
The project is but one example of how rapidly spreading technologies like rooftop solar
and blockchain are upending the traditional relationships between electric companies and consumers, putting ever more control in the hands of customers.
Once that occurs, Mr. Orsini said, the company will be able to facilitate the trading of energy among its participants — though they would still pay the utility, Con Edison, for infrastructure fees
and services, as customers now do when they choose to use a green energy supplier through the utility.
“Hopefully it will expand and more people will join and it will be more worthwhile.”
The project includes plans to create a roughly five-square-block area — either around a collection of public housing projects or near a hospital —
that could disconnect from the grid and operate independently in case of a power failure.
On a block of President Street last year, the company carried out two sales of green electricity credits generated by one homeowner’s
solar system to a neighbor across the street — tiny transactions, but important in proving the concept’s viability.