Blockchain is a technology for storing and transmitting information, based on a distributed ledger secured by cryptography and validated through consensus mechanisms. It maintains a transparent and tamperresistant history of transactions. Depending on the design, a blockchain can be public (open to anyone) or private (restricted to specific participants). Beyond cryptocurrencies, its applications span supply chain management, healthcare, digital identity, asset transfer and tokenization, the Internet of Things, smart contracts, decentralized finance, etc. Blockchain can enable new ways to manage and trace energy flows, facilitate peer-to-peer energy trading, improve transparency in billing and settlement processes, support the integration of distributed renewable resources, and help build decentralized energy marketplaces.
Highlights
The whole blockchain market—encompassing technology platforms, services, and infrastructure—is
estimated at around US $31–33 bn in 2025, and is expected to explode to US $393 bn by 2030–2032, depending on the source. A 2017 McKinsey study found implementing blockchain could boost industrial productivity by up to 9 % and deliver 7 % cost savings, through enhanced progress tracking and improved cost and schedule estimates. In 2025, Zhou demonstrated, through an experimental blockchain-based energy market, substantial enhancements in transaction efficiency, characterised by higher transaction volumes and frequencies, shorter settlement times, reduced costs, and improved transparency.
Challenges for DSOs
- Scalability & performance: Public blockchains can be slow and energy-intensive, while private/permissioned blockchains raise governance questions
- Interoperability: Integrating with existing grid systems and smart meters can be complex and lead to high migration costs
- Regulation & governance: must be compliant with energy regulations and legal frameworks. Who decides the rules of the ledger?
- Market adoption: Prosumers, aggregators, suppliers, and regulators must adopt and trust the technology. Otherwise, we face the risk of fragmented solutions (incompatible blockchains).
Opportunities for DSOs
- Transparency & traceability: Immutable records of energy flows and green certificates which can increase trust among prosumers.
- Integration of distributed resources: Better management of solar, wind, batteries, EVs by enabling automated mechanisms to remunerate flexibility (demand response).
- Operational efficiency: Reduced administrative costs and faster settlements/billing processes.
- Trust and cybersecurity: A decentralized infrastructure makes data more resilient to manipulation or fraud which is useful for protecting sensitive consumption and transaction data
- New services & innovation: Aggregation of resources, tokenization, and local market facilitation.
E.DSO Considerations
- DSOs must follow technological and regulatory developments related to blockchain in order to make the most of these advances to improve their operational performance.
- Blockchain technology consumes a lot of energy. In the context of global warming, this point needs to be improved to make this technology compatible with the ecological transition.
- Blockchain cybersecurity raises new problems that have to be addressed.
- DSOs, which are responsible for metering data, could take advantage of blockchain to carry out this task more effectively.
Potential use cases
- Peer-to-Peer (P2P) energy trading in local microgrids.
- Decentralised energy marketplaces and new macro business models (this can include for example, energy-backed tokens).
- Automated settlement and billing via smart contracts.
- Integration, monitoring and coordination of distributed energy resources (DERs), including demand response programs.
- Immutable tracking of energy flows and renewable certificates for transparency and compliance.
Last update: 30 September 2025