The tech giant, Siemens, announced just prior to Christmas that it will invest in an energy system based on the blockchain principle. An undisclosed investment has been agreed for the start-up company, LO3 Energy, which builds blockchain-based \"smart grids\" in order to trade locally produced energy. LO3\'s implied market valuation was also not disclosed, but in contrast to the many ICOs flooding the market, some of them spurious and deliberately fraudulent, LO3 isn\'t promoting an ICO in a \"pump and dump\"’ action, and may not even issue tokens with market value.

Siemens has been working with LO3 for the past year, with the two companies collaborating on a project to build a localised smart grid in Brooklyn in 2016. The LO3 system is designed as a microgrid, decentralised on the blockchain, which allows what they call \"prosumers\" to trade locally produced energy amongst themselves. The LO3 dApp tracks energy usage and trades specific energy types, including solar (from rooftop panels) or wind-generated electricity. The revenue from this trading helps LO3 build its blockchain network, which it hopes eventually to link into major utility operations.

LO3 believe that decentralisation and the new smart contracts initiated by Ethereum should allow for automated, peer-to-peer, real-time energy transactions which might help consumers regain control from the big utility companies.