Glossary
Last updated
Last updated
An initiative for purchasing clean, carbon-free energy every hour on a regional grid where consumption occurs. An entity's clean energy demands are correlated with its energy generation on an hourly basis.
A new role in energy service provision that groups local participants in a power system (energy consumers, energy producers, energy ) to determine and moderate how much energy they will need to consume from the grid, and, in some cases help them sell their excess electricity from back to the regional or wholesale electricity market.
The aggregator is an intermediary between prosumers, , and that want to serve this group or use their DER services on the grid.
Application registries are the logic to manage permissions, enrollments, and relationships between market participants in an automated way.
The Charge Point Operator (CPO) is responsible for technical operation and maintenance of (public and semi-public) charging stations. Its revenue comes mainly from providing electrical energy to EVs.
The Crypto Climate Accord (CCA) is a global private sector-led initiative co-launched by Energy Web to build, test, and implement digital solutions that will decarbonize the crypto and blockchain industry by 2040. Learn more .
A decentralized application (dApp) is an application built on a decentralized network that combines a smart contract and a frontend user interface.
DIDs **** are persistent identifiers that identify DID subjects such as assets, customers, organizations, and other market participants. DIDs allow the controller of a DID to prove control over it without requiring permission from any other party. DIDs associate a DID subject with a DID document to allow trustable interactions with that subject.
The DSB is the messaging service of the Energy Web Decentralized Operating System’s (EW-DOS) utility layer. Unlike any other centralised and managed pub/sub messaging systems, EW-DSB is designed and implemented to be fully decentralised and scalable. Messages shared on EW-DSB can be traced back to its original sender using cryptographic signatures; it adds extra security to data exchanges. One of the key benefits of the EW-DSB is to be schema agnostic, meaning any type of schema can be shared as a message between users/systems.
Physical and virtual assets that are deployed across the distribution grid can be used individually or in aggregate to provide value to the grid, individual customers, or both.
DERs can for example include solar, batteries, flexible loads and are also often referred to as “devices” or “assets”.
The eMobility Service Provider (eMSP) provides e-mobility services such as access to charging services, payment and more to EV drivers. It requires certain data exchange for those services, e.g. charging locations for routing.
The movement of high-voltage electricity from sub-stations to customers through distribution lines.
The movement of high-voltage electricity from initial generation sites to substations.
Energy Attribute Certificates (EACs) describe global instruments which certify that a specific unit (historically 1 MWh, but sometimes 1 KWh) of electricity was produced from a renewable source.
Globally there are various EAC systems to claim the use of renewable or low-carbon energy. Some well-known standards include Guarantees of Origin (EU), I-RECs (global), and RECs (US/Canada).
Redeemed EAC = an EAC that has been bought by someone can't be resold to anyone else
Claimed or Cancelled EAC = other ways of calling Redeemed EACs
Bundled Certificates = contracts that sell consumable energy + EACs together
Unbundled Certificates = contracts that sell EACs separately from the energy that produced them
The EWT is the Energy Web Chain native first-layer utility token.
The ability of the grid to balance how much power it generates with how much demand there is for it. Flexibility services include any service that meets a requirement to provide more or less demand on the system. ****
A distributed messaging node which can send OCPI messages between OCN Parties.
Open Charge Network (OCN) Node
A single node of the Open Charging Network which forwards OCPI/OCN messages between parties based on a routing system. Consists of a message broker, a connection to an Energy Web Chain Node, a blockchain wallet and more. A network of nodes constructs the Open Charging Network.
Smart contracts on the Energy Web Chain that contain important information about registered OCN Nodes, OCN Parties and OCN Services. These contracts act as the addressing, identity, and permissions system of the OCN. A command line interface and libraries are provided for interaction.
A company that manufactures and sells products or parts of a product that their buyer, another company, sells to its own customers while putting the products under its own branding.
Anyone who both consumes and produces energy. Prosumers produce energy through Distributed Energy Resources (DER), such as rooftop solar panels.
SSI is a digital paradigm that promotes an individual’s control over their identity and their data. This is in contrast to the current paradigm where most of our official identifiers (driver’s license, birth certificate, usernames, etc.) are given to us and maintained by a central authority, and where our data can be shared without our knowledge or consent.
DIDs and VCs are the two most critical components of SSI. Together they allow users to have control over both their identity and any data associated with them.
An SDK is a collection of software development tools in one installable package. They facilitate the creation of applications. In the context of Energy Web, they are open-source “blueprints” for building apps on EW-DOS.
Energy Web launched staking on the Volta Test Network in August 2021. This is a first step towards a Decentralized Software as a Service (dSaaS) infrastructure, allowing for decentralized, community-driven service provision for Energy Web utility services and applications.
The Energy Web staking model extends blockchain tokens staking to SaaS provisioning. Ultimately, anyone will be able to stake tokens with service providers of their choosing, and both parties will be rewarded for providing fast, stable and secure services based on EW's decentralized, open-source software. Staking in the way Energy Web is implementing it, applies the benefits of decentralization and network resiliency of blockchain technology to software and IT services more broadly.
Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) is a system of software and hardware elements that allows industrial organizations to i) control industrial processes locally or at remote locations; ii) monitor, gather, and process real-time data; iii) directly interact with devices such as sensors, valves, pumps, motors, and more through human-machine interface (HMI) software; and iv) record events into a log file.
Switchboard is an identity and access management dApp (decentralized app). Switchboard allows for the definition of organization and application structures to be used for role-based permissioning within applications that relate to decarbonization.
It enables a user-centric, decentralized approach where users are in control of their identity (identifier, keys, credentials). Switchboard enables the digitization of assets by giving them unique identities and allowing them to interact with the decentralized operating system and decarbonization use cases.
The UL is composed of decentralized cloud services like messaging, key manager, and storage that form the “middle” layer of the EW-DOS tech stack.
"Validators" refer to both a node and an organization; the companies operating the EWC. Validators on the Energy Web Chain have three main responsibilities: i) Create Blocks, ii) Provide Network Security, and iii) Participate in the EWC Governance.
VCs are a set of statements made about a subject (such as a DID) by an authority. They can be used to convince others (who trust the authority) of the truth of the statements and can be linked from a DID document.
The operating managers (and sometimes owners) of energy distribution networks that operate at a regional or local level. DSOs manage high-voltage incoming electricity from larger transmission grids (via ), convert it to a lower voltage, and distribute it throughout the local network. They are, in essence, the middle-man between the raw, high-voltage electricity from transmission grids and the local consumers of electricity.
The EWC is a public, enterprise-grade blockchain platform designed for the energy sector’s regulatory, operational, and market needs. Launched in mid-2019, it serves as a foundational digital infrastructure on which companies can build and run blockchain-based decentralized applications (dApps). Learn more .
EW-DOS is the acronym for Energy Web Decentralized Operating System. EW-DOS is an open-source stack of decentralized software and standards. **** Learn more .
At a basic level, and procure flexibility services. and offer flexibility services using distributed energy resources.
A decentralized network for enabling use-cases in the EV charging domain. Consists of many and a single . Can also be considered as an implementation of the Hub concept.
A of a party on the Open Charging Network based on an Energy Web Chain public/private key-pair.
A protocol that allows for a scalable, automated roaming setup between and . See OCPI documentation .
Responsible for transmitting electrical power from power generation plants to distribution local or regional operators () via the electrical grid. This involves determining how much electricity needs to be on the grid at any given time, and managing reserve capacity and ancillary energy providers to keep the grid balanced.