Hive  /  Energy
A working note, not a pitch

Energy markets run on PDFs and XML. We think they should run on signed receipts.

We're a small team. We're not saying the people who built PJM, CAISO, ERCOT, or the EU Network Code missed something obvious. Here's what we noticed. Every market message in your stack, from a 5-minute regulation bid to a capacity-performance test, is still trusted as a PDF or an XML file sent over a secure connection. Right now, you rebuild the court-grade evidence chain after the fact. We think the message itself should already be that chain.

Four bearer primitives SEU · SMU · SAU · SFU RFC 8785 / Ed25519 Offline verifier · no ISO callback FERC 2222 aligned
Read the primer Agentic Grid Receipts: category brief Request a pilot conversation
01 Four bearer primitives

One signed receipt per market action.

The four primitives below cover everything: capacity, delivered energy, ancillary services, and demand flexibility. Each one is a JSON body, put into the same standard shape under RFC 8785, hashed with SHA-256, and signed all the way through with Ed25519, with a clear link back to its parent record. The ISO can check it in a browser. The IPP holds the same file. The aggregator signs on top of it. Five years later, an auditor can read the whole chain without ever calling us.

SEU

Standard Energy Unit.

Power · Capacity

One kilowatt of qualified capacity over a commitment period, backed by a signed capacity certificate that names its measurement window and test method.

SMU

Standard Megawatt Unit.

Megawatt-Hour · Delivered

One MWh of dispatched energy that a meter confirmed was delivered. It pairs a dispatch receipt with a revenue-grade meter-data receipt, so you get a court-grade evidence chain.

SAU

Standard Ancillary Unit.

Ancillary · ISO Market

One MW of regulation, spinning reserve, non-spin, ramping, or frequency response. It replaces the XML market message with a signed bid receipt the ISO can check offline.

SFU

Standard Flexibility Unit.

Flex · Virtual Power Plant

One kilowatt-hour of forward demand-flex obligation. It's the basic unit of VPP and DR market participation. The ISO signs on top of it, and curtailment links back to dispatch through parent_ref.

02 Who this is for

Four different jobs. The same receipt.

If you sit in one of the roles below and this question lands on your desk, this page is for you. The receipt itself doesn't change. Only the angle you care about does.

ISO · RTO operations

Chief engineers, market operators.

A bid receipt the dispatch desk can check offline. It swaps trusting the pipe for trusting the signature, without touching your market clearing engine.

IPP · merchant generation

CFOs, treasurers, settlement leads.

One file that proves capacity was qualified, energy was delivered, and ancillary service was provided. Re-running settlement becomes a quick check instead of a month of digging.

VPP · DR aggregators

CEOs, FERC counsel, dispatch ops.

FERC 2222 settlement becomes a chain of signed flex receipts, from the DER asset to the aggregator to the ISO. The aggregator's XML file stops being the only evidence on record.

Utility · load-serving entity

CTOs, regulatory affairs, NERC compliance.

Capacity, delivered energy, and demand flex all use the same receipt format. NERC CIP-013 alignment, CAISO 2026 capacity reform, and PJM dispatchability rules all share one evidence layer.

03 The integration question

We're not proposing to replace anything.

The honest framing

One signed receipt per market action that the ISO can verify offline.

Your market clearing, your scheduling, and your tariffs stay untouched. The ISO's market participant gateway still receives bids. The settlement system still produces invoices. The OASIS posting still happens. What changes is that the message behind each of those actions is now in a standard form, signed, and checkable end to end, with no callback to any server we control.

We don't sit in the dispatch path. We don't hold the energy. We don't route the schedule. We just issue the receipt the issuer was already going to issue, in a form the other side can check in a browser, with no callout to Hive when they check it. If that doesn't hold up under your team's scrutiny, we haven't earned the conversation.

04 Where to go next

Two pages. Different depths.

05 The receipt family

Same primitive. Different rooms.

Energy is one room among several where the same signed-receipt primitive shows up. Each of the sites below is the same idea applied to a different evidentiary surface.

Private by design. Hive does not store your prompts. Every request is already receipted by a one-way SHA-256 fingerprint, not the words. Proof, not surveillance.