Technical Architecture
The initial React technical architecture was developed by Anode Labs. Anode Labs plans to open-source the core code base under an open-source license (license type to be determined) at a date following the mainnet launch. A high-level overview of the technical architecture and components can be found below.
React Energy Layer
Energy Monitors
Energy monitors are small devices that can be installed on electric panels to monitor energy consumption in real time. Real time telemetry is not widely available in the energy market; however, it is imperative to optimizing both forecasts for energy supply and flexibility at the grid edge. Energy monitors are the foundation of the React Network, and will allow the network to build the largest collection of real-time energy data in the world. This data can be monetized as a standalone service, as well as used for measurement and verification for virtual power plant operations.
Anode Labs is developing an open-source energy monitor for the community. We plan to foster an ecosystem of hardware manufacturers conforming to the open-source specifications in the future. React will work with existing energy monitors on the market for the early days of the network, before fully shifting to the open-source standard.
While the energy monitor plays a core role in the React Network, it also provides ancillary benefits for each owner. The data insights can assist in reducing total electricity costs and inform the user on the consumption of each of their appliances, helping to optimize home electricity consumption.
Distributed Energy Resources
Distributed energy resources (“DERs”) are small, electricity-producing resources, energy storage systems or controllable loads that are deployed across the distribution grid, typically behind-the-meter, that provide electric capacity or energy where needed. DERs are intelligent and dispatchable, and can be aggregated together to provide flexibility to power grids as a unit.
DERs can include home solar and energy storage, smart thermostats, EVs and EV chargers, hot water heaters, and even electrified appliances. The more flexibility available in a load source, the higher value to React and to the grid.
Support is dependent on an accessible API for data collection and control. Anode Labs will continue to whitelist assets and work to integrate with all major DER brands.
Registration Services
Registration services are responsible for integrating an asset into React. During registration, React will collect each asset’s location, manufacturer, model, MAC address / serial number, retail electricity provider and plan type, and unique meter ID. These characteristics are tagged to the asset itself, which are then used for pool assignments, settlement, and verification.
Aggregated distributed energy resources in React provide critical infrastructure services, and are subject to asset-level identity requirements imposed by regional grid operators. Grid operators need visibility into the specifications of each asset on the distribution grid and their individual characteristics to optimize grid stability controls.
Network Data Pipeline
The Network Data Pipeline extracts, transforms, and loads asset telemetry data in a standardized format. The Network Data Infrastructure will be the mission-critical link between all grid-edge resources on the network. It will be responsible for standardizing data across various energy resources connected to the React Network. The network data services will run every 5 minutes to extract state information from each energy asset connected to the network. Data pipelines are standardized across asset classes. Within each asset class, there may be multiple OEM devices that will be extracted, saved, validated, transformed and reported.
Currently, the Network Data Pipeline uses cloud-based microservices and time series database architecture off-chain for our extraction, transformation and load (“ETL”) pipelines. The ETL pipelines and data will be stored off-chain. The Network data infrastructure will also communicate with the Distributed Energy Resource Management System (“DERMS”) software to store and transfer dispatch signals between the software and energy resources.
Space & Time is currently working with the React Network to integrate their decentralized database and data warehousing systems as the Network’s off-chain data storage infrastructure.
The network data pipelines are key to the effectiveness of the network. The network data systems are designed for up-time, data integrity and availability.
DERMS
Distributed Energy Resource Management System, or DERMS, is a software-based platform that provides the ability to continuously manage diverse and dispersed DERs, both individually and in aggregate, to support multiple objectives related to distribution grid operations,end-customer value or market participation. The objective of DERMS platforms is to be able to dynamically rchestrate the dispatch of internet connected, variable, and customer-sited constrained assets into a mission critical, virtual resource for utilities and system operators.
React leverages Grid eXchange Fabric (GXF) as its native DERMS. GXF is an open, generic, scalable and independent 'Internet of Things' platform, which enables various connected smart objects in the public space to be easily controlled and monitored. GXF is maintained by LF Energy, an initiative launched by the Linux Foundation in 2018 to support the digitization of the power grid.
State Estimation / Forecast Modeling
Additionally, React leverages LF Energy’s OpenEEmeter in conjunction with other open-source models for state estimation across the network’s portfolio of devices. OpenEEmeter is an open source toolkit for implementing and developing standard methods for calculating normalized metered energy consumption (NMEC) and avoided energy use. The OpenEEmeter library contains routines for estimating energy efficiency savings at the meter. Anode Labs is currently using OpenEEmeter’s weather modules for the energy forecasting layer on top of SciKit’s open source ML library. The libraries provide backend functionality, while our proprietary data and training makes it usable for our application. The state estimation model will be open sourced and initially operated by Anode Labs. We plan to decentralize the oracle over time.
Elastic Asset Pools
Asset pools are regional collections of energy assets that can be orchestrated together to provide flexibility to the grid. We define React pools as “elastic” because assets can be sited in multiple pools- for example, in a utility pool as well as a wholesale market pool. Assets will be included in pools based on their location, characteristics, and market opportunities.
Market participants in the energy markets will not have the infrastructure or expertise to interact natively with a decentralized, on-chain network. Therefore, abstracting away the complexity will be critical for successfully engaging the buy-side of the React Network. Market participants will pay for pool contracts through traditional fiat rails - typically bank wire. The React Foundation will maintain an account with Silvergate Bank, which will collect revenue and deposit it in the React Network’s on-chain treasury to be distributed to resource contributors. The React Foundation will release monthly bank statements to the community for auditability. Anode Labs continues to explore more decentralized alternatives for bridging off-chain revenue on-chain.
React Crypto Layer
Off-Chain Storage
All evidence data will be stored in Space & Time's decentralized data network to preserve trust and reduce dependencies on centralized architectures. Potentially identifying information will be encrypted, while network health data will remain available. React's data provides a real-time picture of the network’s assets and is used by the exchange to determine availability and settlement.
Anode Labs plans to decentralize the entire data collection pipeline over time. Anode Labs is actively working with decentralized storage and compute protocols to facilitate this transition when performance and cost enable it.
Oracle Service
State estimation oracles are required to submit the valid capacity and deliverable power of the network’s assets to the chain.
Blockchain
React will be built on top of the Polygon PoS chain. React has selected Polygon PoS as it best fits the current needs of the network.
First, Polygon PoS is an Ethereum commit chain that inherits Ethereum’s economic security via checkpointing transactions, while offering significantly more transaction throughput (~7,000 txs/sec) and lower transaction costs than the L1. This is important to ensure that React's sophisticated smart contracts can operate without incurring significant costs while settling securely and quickly.
Second, Polygon PoS is a carbon-negative blockchain, aligning with React's mission of accelerating a renewable energy system. Polygon has taken an active approach to sustainability, committing to their Green Manifesto of moving from carbon-negative to climate-positive.
Finally, full EVM compatibility means React is composable with other Ethereum dapps deployed on Polygon PoS. React will be able to take advantage of the deep developer community, compose natively with the large DeFi ecosystem, and benefit from the robust network effects built around the Ethereum project.
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