{"id":74783,"date":"2019-09-19T21:02:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-19T21:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interac1.wpengine.com\/content\/%content-category%\/how-interac-used-blockchain-technology-to-create-energy-incentives-instantly\/"},"modified":"2025-05-30T13:44:52","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T17:44:52","slug":"how-interac-used-blockchain-technology-to-create-energy-incentives-instantly","status":"publish","type":"content","link":"https:\/\/www.interac.ca\/en\/content\/business\/how-interac-used-blockchain-technology-to-create-energy-incentives-instantly\/","title":{"rendered":"How Interac used blockchain technology to create energy incentives, instantly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Interac leverages its payment platforms in a new and innovative way, creating a win for a green-power utility<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Picture yourself a few years from now. It\u2019s after work, and you\u2019re pulling into the driveway in your electric car. You\u2019re about to plug it into the charging outlet when an app pings you with a notification.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s asking: Would you be willing to wait until the middle of the night to recharge your vehicle? This will accomplish two things: First, you\u2019ll reduce the\u00a0<\/span>demand<\/span>\u00a0on your local power grid, which relies on solar energy. Second, in exchange for agreeing, you\u2019ll receive<\/span>\u00a0(for the sake of this example)<\/span>\u00a0$5, which will be instantly available to you via an\u00a0<\/span>Interac\u00a0<\/span><\/i>e-Transfer.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Since you don\u2019t plan to drive again until the next morning, you accept. It\u2019s a bonus for you, a help to your energy provider \u2014 and, in the big picture, a win for the environment, because it\u00a0<\/span>helps\u00a0<\/span>make renewable power more financially viable for everyone.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For a group of homeowners, that scene played out in real life this spring, and Interac played a central role in making it happen.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Oscar Roque,\u00a0<\/span>AVP, Innovation, Research & Emerging Solutions for Interac<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0notes that the company\u2019s platforms and products already allow millions of Canadians and Canadian businesses to make fast, secure financial transactions. In the future, he says, \u201cWe\u2019ll need to develop even more ways to work and transact with each other in harmony.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As the world looks for ways to combat climate change, the good news is that two key pieces of our arsenal \u2014 renewable energy generation, and low- or zero-emission vehicles and devices \u2014 are proliferating. The challenge? Co-ordinating these resources in real time so that electricity can be generated and distributed efficiently.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In a three-month pilot project earlier this year, Interac partnered with\u00a0<\/span>Alectra<\/span>\u00a0Utilities and IBM to test a potential solution \u2014 one that involved \u201creal consumers, real solar panels, real batteries, real electric vehicles and real money,\u201d Roque says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how it worked: A small test group of\u00a0<\/span>Alectra<\/span>\u00a0customers \u2014 all of whom have solar panels, electric home batteries and\/or electric vehicles \u2014 downloaded an app that offered incentives to generate or consume power at certain times. If everyone followed the incentives, the efficiency of the grid would be optimized.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Consumers were offered \u201csparks\u201d \u2014\u00a0<\/span>or\u00a0<\/span>tokens that could be converted into Canadian dollars. Thanks to\u00a0<\/span>Interac<\/span><\/i>\u00a0e-Transfer\u00a0<\/span>Autodeposit<\/span>, the rewards appeared right away in customers\u2019 bank accounts.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The solution used IBM\u00a0<\/span>blockchain software<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to facilitate a secure communication system behind the scenes, which enabled the various parts of the network to talk to each other.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Roque spends much of his time exploring the potential of new technologies to deliver real-world benefits to Interac customers and stakeholders. For three years, he\u2019s been working on evaluating concepts that make use of blockchain technology.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to get a grip on how it could change our business,\u201d he says. And among the blockchain\u00a0<\/span>projects<\/span>\u00a0Roque has seen, the Interac-<\/span>Alectra<\/span>-IBM partnership stands out as a \u201cgreat use case.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The way things typically work now, Roque explains, consumers who have solar panels can receive incentives for sharing their surplus power \u2014 but the bonuses arrive relatively slowly, in the form of credits on their energy bills. Blockchain allowed the pilot-project homeowners to receive incentives instantly and conveniently. It also created a verifiable, auditable data trail for each bit of energy produced and\u00a0<\/span>\u201c<\/span>spark<\/span>\u201d<\/span>\u00a0awarded.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At Interac, Roque says, \u201cWe have a real-time payment platform. That allows you to\u00a0<\/span>move money quickly and conveniently<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>In this case, once the money is transferred, people<\/span>\u00a0can use\u00a0<\/span>Interac<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span>D<\/span>ebit<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Interac<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span>F<\/span>lash, to\u00a0<\/span>make a purchase\u00a0<\/span>at\u00a0<\/span>one of the nearly half million businesses on the Interac network<\/span>.\u201d With the right encouragement, the project partners learned, homeowners could be incentivized to follow energy-efficient behaviour patterns \u2014 a discovery that could have huge implications if scaled up and introduced across Canada.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Looking past the energy sector, Roque believes the project demonstrates the potential of blockchain-based partnerships to deliver wins in other realms \u2014 financial services, health<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>care, and beyond. Roque believes Interac, with its long history of bringing various stakeholders together to put new technologies into daily use, is well-poised to facilitate these partnerships.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor 35 years, we have governed a number of different platforms,\u201d Roque says.\u00a0<\/span>\u201c<\/span>From an innovation perspective, we think: How do you actually leverage those platforms<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>services<\/span>, and our governance expertise<\/span>\u00a0to do more?\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Picture yourself a few years from now. It\u2019s after work, and you\u2019re pulling into the driveway in your electric car. You\u2019re about to plug it into the charging outlet when an app pings you with a notification. It\u2019s asking: Would you be willing to wait until the middle of the night to recharge your vehicle? This will accomplish two things: First, you\u2019ll reduce the\u00a0demand\u00a0on your local power grid, which relies on solar energy. Second, in exchange for agreeing, you\u2019ll receive\u00a0(for the sake of this example)\u00a0$5, which will be instantly available to you via an\u00a0Interac<\/i>\u00a0e-Transfer.\u00a0[Read more]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":74786,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"content-tags":[952,279,272],"content-category":[189],"spokespeople":[],"in_the_know_post_format":[169],"class_list":["post-74783","content","type-content","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","content-tags-enterprise-and-government","content-tags-interac-debit","content-tags-interac-e-transfer","content-category-business","in_the_know_post_format-article"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow Interac Uses Blockchain to Create Energy Incentives<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In a pilot, Interac, Alectra Utilities and IBM used blockchain technology and INTERAC e-Transfer to create energy incentives.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.interac.ca\/en\/content\/business\/how-interac-used-blockchain-technology-to-create-energy-incentives-instantly\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Interac used blockchain technology to create energy incentives, instantly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Picture yourself a few years from now. 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