InnoBlog: a Master’s Industrial Innovation project turned hackathon

For any student in the Master’s in Smart Electrical Networks and Systems, the second semester of the first year features an Industrial Innovation Project. It is an opportunity to work with a company or start-up on a technical or commercial problem, acting like consultants. My team and I worked with the R&D department at Vattenfall, a major electric utility in the Nordics. 

Vattenfall is working towards fossil free living within one generation. Therefore, they are piloting many projects and exploring various technologies in areas such as renewable energy, energy storage, and decentralised generation. Our project focused on using distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) to validate flexibility commitments from distributed assets. 

DLTs include the well-known blockchain technology but also up-and-coming tech such as Hedera Hashgraph, which was the focus of our project. Compared to traditional blockchain technology, Hedera offers higher transaction speeds and improved security, both of relevance to applications in the power grid. 

As we developed our testnet over the course of the semester, I added several new skills to my engineering toolbox: