Building a blockchain-based solution to track and approve electric vehicle credits

What We Did

As utilities work toward a more sustainable energy future, they’re seeking ways to incentivize electric vehicle adoption. One way to do that is to make it easier to process and calculate credits earned from charging EVs provided by the California program called the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS). In the case of this West Coast investor-owned utility (IOU), the existing system available to process LCFS credits was clunky and difficult to update as it relied on the manual tracking and approval of credits in spreadsheets. The utility’s leadership turned to West Monroe to develop a digital solution that could be easily scaled to keep pace with evolving needs

The Opportunity

States across the US are seeking ways to incentivize carbon reduction—specifically, states on the west coast are incentivizing the shift from fossil fuel vehicles to electric vehicles through carbon credits. However, the credit tracking system causes many eligible candidates to not claim their credits. Our multidisciplinary team of industry experts and innovative technologists identified blockchain as a promising technology to digitize the process and enable thousands of new beneficiaries.

Working under a tight budget and time frame, the utility turned to West Monroe to:

• Develop a system that collects real-time EV charging data
• Design a proof-of-concept blockchain application
• Validate a solution that can enable $30M+ more credits to flow to customers

An Undeniable Approach

Our team knew that meaningful digital transformation required the right mix of human-powered collaboration and data-driven insights. We got to work:

• Leading brainstorming sessions with the utility team members to identify the most impactful use cases and identify a solution with a high ROI
• Implementing cloud solutions to capture real-time data from EV chargers and smart meter platforms and convert them into actionable data
• Developing an Ethereum-based blockchain application that uses smart contracts to streamline the calculation of customer LCFS credits by a factor of 10

The Output

Our team replaced the utility client’s inefficient paper-based credit tracking system with a dynamic, scalable blockchain solution that includes:

• More accurate LCFS credit calculations based on real-time data
• Seamless minting of LCFS credits into California Air Resources Board (CARB)-compliant tokens
• Automatic transfer of tokens to the wallet associated with a specific customer account
• Web-accessible app that visualizes relevant data and prioritizes user experience

Returns You Can Measure

• Estimated $30M+ in credit benefits unlocked for EV owning customers
• 90% reduction in workforce hours spent on LCFS calculations
• Potential for a 100-300% increase in number of customers able to earn LCFS credits