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I am relatively new to the topic, with not the greatest electrical engineering background, so these questions may sound simple, but I still cannot figure out how certain platforms such as piclo, vandebron and others manage to trade electricity between households?

Doesn't this introduce concerns for the utility grid, such as overload, feeding the grid with electricity not in phase, etc.? And how can one even use the utility grid to transmit electricity to another household of choice? (how does one get an easy access?)

As, I mentioned, those questions may be simple and redundant, but I do not seem to find answers anywhere.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ You cannot feed unlimited energy into the grid. The controller decides how much you can supply to the grid. You can have a look at brooklyn.energy to see how they utilize the existing infrastructure to have a peer to peer energy market. \$\endgroup\$
    – Niteesh Shanbog
    Apr 9, 2019 at 8:57
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    \$\begingroup\$ Providers are paid for how much energy they put into the pool. Users are charged for how much they take out of the pool. \$\endgroup\$
    – Transistor
    Apr 9, 2019 at 9:27
  • \$\begingroup\$ @NiteeshShanbog The only term I've heard is dispatcher. But it may differ around the world. \$\endgroup\$
    – winny
    Apr 9, 2019 at 9:27
  • \$\begingroup\$ @winny A dispatcher is a utility I guess. For microgrids, where peer to peer transaction is more viable, a Microgrid controller takes care of maintaining the demand-supply balance with respect to the grid. \$\endgroup\$
    – Niteesh Shanbog
    Apr 9, 2019 at 9:32
  • \$\begingroup\$ @NiteeshShanbog I fail to see the difference between them. Both would be called dispatchers in my world. \$\endgroup\$
    – winny
    Apr 9, 2019 at 9:40

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Leaving aside any regulatory issues as to how billing and access to the network works...

Any micro-generation schemes will feed the grid through an approved grid-tied inverter. When powered up, this monitors the supply for a while, then automatically locks itself to the phase of the grid. If the primary source is DC, e.g. solar panels, then the inverter will generate AC at the correct phase to match the grid. If the generator is AC, e.g. some wind turbines, then it will need rectifying to DC, before converting back to AC at the right frequency and phase.

There's no way you can carefully route electrons from one producer to one consumer. The grid doesn't work like that. Instead, it will all be sorted in the metering and billing. If one person exports 10kWh and another uses 10kWh, then it's down to the billing system to make sure the right producer gets paid.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ This is where blockchain is expected to play a major role. \$\endgroup\$
    – Niteesh Shanbog
    Apr 9, 2019 at 9:33

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