About The Observatory

The Observatory includes 200+ participating experts on peer-to-peer energy trading/transactive energy and community/collective self-consumption models from all over the world, representing academia, industry and non-profits.

We welcome new participants! As a participant you can join any of the Observatory sub-tasks (by directly contacting the sub-task leads, whose details are included in the ‘sub-tasks’ section below) that align with your current work and to which you would be able to provide expertise. For more information on each sub-task, see the ‘Sub-tasks descriptions’ document under the ‘Publications’ section below. By participating you will not only be able to play an active role in shaping the Observatory’s deliverables, but also join an international community of experts in the field, providing opportunities for future collaboration.

Policymakers are a key target audience of the Observatory, as we want to ensure its findings respond to their evidence needs. In case you are a policymaker and interested in the Observatory, please get in touch with us (see details below).

If you have any questions on the Observatory and participation, please email us (go-p2p@userstcp.org).

Read the GO-P2P blog here.

Launch

On 2-3 September 2019, the Global Observatory on Peer-to-Peer, Community Self-Consumption and Transactive Energy Models (GO-P2P) was officially launched in London, United Kingdom. The launch was attended by 110 stakeholders from a range of sectors, i.e. national and international policymakers, industry, start-ups, utilities, non-profits, academics etc. Up to 15 countries were represented, mainly from Europe but also Asia, Australia, North America and South America.

• Introduction to GO-P2P
• Summary Global Observatory Launch Event – Sept 2019

2020

The second meeting of GO-P2P took place on 17-18 February 2020 in Florence, Italy, at the European University Institute (Florence School of Regulation, FSR). The event was attended by 65 stakeholders from industry, policy and academia, representing 13 countries. The event included presentations of P2P/TE/CSC case studies and panel sessions with policymakers as well as industry representatives. For more information on the event:

• Event highlights by FSR
• Interview of Alexandra Schneiders (GO-P2P Operating Agent) for FSR podcast
• Blog by UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) (event funder)

The third meeting took place (online) on 15-16 September 2020, and was hosted by Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU)- with the support of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

2021

Our fourth meeting took place (online) on 12-13 July 2021. It was organised in collaboration with the International Energy Agency (IEA) initiative on Digital Demand-Driven Electricity Networks, 3DEN.

The first day of the event focused on the rollout of peer-to-peer energy systems in Latin America. The day included panel sessions featuring several peer-to-peer energy case studies in Latin America, including the Transactive Energy Colombia Initiative in Medellin (Colombia). Panellists represented organisations such as the Energy Sustainability Agency in Chile and ANEEL (Brazilian energy regulator). Despite the focus of the event being on Latin America, there was interest from the whole world, with 230+ registrations from 46 countries.

The second day of the event was an internal meeting of GO-P2P participants. It marked the launch of the next phase of work of the Global Observatory, namely its case study selection and data collection phase. In preparation for this, the GO-P2P sub-tasks have drafted literature reviews setting out the evidence gaps as regards the power systems integration, ICT/technology, market design, economic/social value and policy/regulation aspects of peer-to-peer energy models. These literature reviews can be seen in the ‘publications’ section below.

• For access to the presentations and recordings, please click here.

2022

The fifth meeting of GO-P2P took take place on 23-24 June 2022 as part of the IERC EnerConf workshop in Cork, Ireland. IERC leads GO-P2P’s sub-task 2 on the ICT/data layer of peer-to-peer energy models. The event provided valuable opportunities to discuss the rollout of community and peer-to-peer energy models in Ireland.

• Read more about the event here: 5th GO-P2P Meeting

2023

The sixth meeting of GO-P2P took place in Santa Monica, California, on 9-10 February 2023. It was organised by The Energy Coalition, and co-hosted by the City of Santa Monica.

Presenters from organisations including Cleanwatts, Post Road Foundation and Powerledger presented pilots of peer-to-peer energy trading/transactive energy/community self-consumption in the United States and Europe. For social media coverage of the event click here.

SUB-TASK 1: Power systems integration
led by Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Switzerland (contact: Benjamin Bowler, benjamin.bowler@hslu.ch)
Activity:
1. Evaluate the benefits for the grid of P2P/CSC/TE energy markets.
2. Evaluate the key enablements and constraints arising from existing and likely future power system architectures and technologies.

SUB-TASK 2: Hardware, software & data
led by International Energy Research Centre, Ireland (contact: Brian O’Regan, brian.oregan@ierc.ie)
Activity:
1. Evaluating the role of the hardware, software and data ontologies on the functioning of P2P/CSC/TE energy markets.
2. Evaluate the key enablements and constraints arising from existing and likely future ICT solutions.

SUB-TASK 3: Transactions and markets
led by University of Colorado Denver, United States (contact: Lynne Kiesling, lynne@knowledgeproblem.com)
Activity:
1. Assess the architecture of the transaction layer for recording, balancing and settlement of imports and exports.
2. Evaluate the impacts of the design of P2P/CSC/TE energy markets on performance of the system.

SUB-TASK 4: Economic and social value
jointly led by Western Sydney University, Australia (contact: Declan Kuch, , d.kuch@westernsydney.edu.au) and Delft University of Technology, (TU Delft) (contact: Abhigyan Singh , a.singh@tudelft.nl)
Activity:
1. Evaluate the construction of consumer value propositions based on economic and social value.
2. Evaluate how the ‘choice architecture’ of P2P/CSC/TE models impacts on participant engagement and outcomes.

SUB-TASK 5: Policy and regulation
jointly led by NOVA School of Law, Portugal (contact: Lucila de Almeida, lucila.dealmeida@novalaw.unl.pt) and European University Institute/Florence School of Regulation, Italy (contact: Nicolò Rossetto, Nicolo.Rossetto@eui.eu)
Activity:
1. Identify the impact of policy and regulation on the uptake of peer–to–peer and associated models.
2. Identify the key characteristics of the regulatory environment that support or inhibit their implementation.

University College London (United Kingdom) is in charge of overall management of the Observatory as well as the analysis of findings. Contact: go-p2p@userstcp.org.

GO-P2P Literature Reviews:

• Sub-task 1 Power systems integration (November 2021)
• Sub-task 2 Hardware, software & data (June 2021)
• Sub-task 3 Transactions and markets (April 2022)
• Sub-task 4 Economic and social value (October 2021)
• Sub-task 5 Policy and regulation ( April 2021)
• Concept definition paper on peer-to-peer energy trading, transactive energy and community/collective self-consumption models.
  Paper by UCL (managing entity) pre-print available here – September 2022
• INATBA/GO-P2P Task Force final report (December 2022)

6th GO-P2P Meeting: “Achieving Equitable Decarbonization in California: What We Can Learn From International Stakeholders”

Date: 9-10 February 2023
Location: Santa Monica, California, USA

The Joint Task Force between INATBA (International Association for Trusted Blockchain Applications) and GO-P2P ran from July 2020 to December 2022.

In December 2022, UCL presented findings from the Task Force’s final report at an event organised by the European Commission and INATBA, entitled “Joining Forces for Blockchain Standardisation”.

The report sets out findings from interviews of 7 start-ups conducting 16 pilots around the world of peer-to-peer energy trading using distributed ledger technologies (DLTs, e.g. blockchain). We interviewed start-ups about the difficulties of scaling up P2P energy models using DLTs, particularly due to difficulties around preserving the data privacy of participants, and the need for standardisation to shield consumers from associated risks.

• Read the report here
• See the Task Force website here