Agentic Grid Receipts: the receipt-shaped market message.
A grid receipt is a canonical JSON body. It's JCS-canonicalized under RFC 8785, SHA-256 hashed, and Ed25519 signed end to end, with explicit parent_ref chains running from capacity through delivered energy, through ancillary service, through demand-flex obligation. The ISO checks it in a browser without a callback. The IPP holds the same artifact. The aggregator countersigns. The auditor reads the chain five years later. The four primitives below are the entire bearer surface. The settlement chain is six steps. The integration is a mirror endpoint and an issuer key.
Same shape. Different market action.
Each primitive is a canonical JSON body with a fixed schema, signed by a registered issuer DID. The fields below are sample payloads meant to illustrate the idea, not a production schema spec. We share the real production schema under NDA during a pilot conversation. We won't hand a regulator a draft.
Standard Energy Unit.
Power · Capacity
One kilowatt of qualified capacity over a commitment period. It's backed by a signed capacity certificate that references a measurement window and test methodology. The SEU is the parent of every dispatch and every meter window that claims to fulfill it. A capacity-performance audit becomes a verifier pass over the SEU and its children.
What it replaces. The PDF capacity certificate, the spreadsheet performance test, and the cover-letter attestation that bind capacity to a commitment period today.
// SEU payload sketch (illustrative) { "type": "SEU.v1", "issuer": "did:hive:iso-rto:caiso-mp-04421", "resource_ref": "res:gen:0x4a...c1", "qualified_kw": 25000, "commitment_window": { "from": "2026-06-01T00:00Z", "to": "2026-09-30T23:59Z" }, "test_method_ref": "caiso-2026-cap-test-r3", "measurement_window": { "interval": "PT5M", "tz": "America/Los_Angeles" }, "parent_ref": "ra-program-2026-q3-cert-77", "sig": "ed25519:..." }
Standard Megawatt Unit.
Megawatt-Hour · Delivered
One MWh of dispatched and meter-verified energy delivery. The SMU pairs a dispatch receipt with a revenue-grade meter-data receipt and chains both back to the SEU under whose qualified capacity the delivery was made. It holds up as court-grade evidence because every link is signed by the party that produced it.
What it replaces. The reconciliation between the dispatch log and the revenue meter CSV that produces today's after-the-fact settlement memo.
// SMU payload sketch (illustrative) { "type": "SMU.v1", "issuer": "did:hive:ipp:merchant-genco-0118", "delivered_mwh": 1.000, "interval": { "from": "2026-07-14T18:00Z", "to": "2026-07-14T19:00Z" }, "dispatch_ref": "sha256:7a3c...d2", "meter_data_ref": "sha256:91b4...0e", "meter_class": "revenue-grade-0.2s", "parent_ref": "SEU:caiso-mp-04421-q3-2026-blk-12", "sig": "ed25519:..." }
Standard Ancillary Unit.
Ancillary · ISO Market
One MW of regulation, spinning reserve, non-spin, ramping, or frequency response. It replaces XML market messages with a signed bid receipt the ISO can verify offline. The SAU carries the product class, the award quantity, the cleared price, and the parent_ref to the resource's SEU. The ISO countersigns on award. A frequency-response audit becomes a verifier pass.
What it replaces. The XML bid envelope and the award PDF that today carry ancillary-services market interactions.
// SAU payload sketch (illustrative) { "type": "SAU.v1", "issuer": "did:hive:ipp:merchant-genco-0118", "product": "reg-up", // reg-up | reg-dn | spin | non-spin | ramp | pfr "award_mw": 12, "interval": { "from": "2026-07-14T18:00Z", "to": "2026-07-14T18:05Z" }, "cleared_price_usd_per_mw": 18.42, "iso_award_ref": "sha256:a02b...c7", // ISO counter-signature "parent_ref": "SEU:caiso-mp-04421-q3-2026-blk-12", "sig": "ed25519:..." }
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 aggregator issues a parent SFU against an ISO program. Each DER asset emits a child SFU at the moment of curtailment, chained by parent_ref. The ISO countersigns the roll-up. Curtailment chains to dispatch with parent_ref. FERC 2222 settlement becomes a verifier pass over the SFU chain.
What it replaces. The aggregator XML roll-up that today is the only evidentiary surface between DER asset behavior and ISO settlement.
// SFU payload sketch (illustrative) { "type": "SFU.v1", "issuer": "did:hive:aggregator:vpp-east-0042", "flex_kwh": 0.250, "der_asset_ref": "der:bess:0x9c...e3", "event_window": { "from": "2026-08-02T20:00Z", "to": "2026-08-02T20:15Z" }, "program_ref": "ferc2222:iso-prog:dr-curtail-2026", "iso_countersig_ref": "sha256:c5d8...f1", "parent_ref": "SFU:vpp-east-0042-roll-2026-08-02", "sig": "ed25519:..." }
Six steps, one chain.
An SEU is the parent. An SMU is its grandchild: one MWh of meter-verified delivery against the qualified capacity. The path between them is six steps. Each step is its own signed receipt. Each step carries the parent_ref of the step before it. You can audit the whole chain in a browser, end to end, without calling out to Hive.
Bid.
The resource owner signs a bid receipt referencing the parent SEU. Energy or ancillary, quantity, interval, price.
SHOD gate.
The self-scheduling and operational-data gate checks the bid against the resource's qualification envelope. It signs a pass or fail.
Dispatch instruction.
The ISO issues a signed dispatch instruction that references the cleared bid. The dispatch carries the SAU or the energy award and the interval.
Meter window.
The revenue-grade meter emits a signed reading for the same interval. The reading references the meter class and the calibration certificate.
Meter-data receipt.
A signed meter-data receipt is produced from the meter reading, with the dispatch_ref and meter_data_ref binding the two artifacts.
SMU mint.
One SMU per MWh of verified delivery, chained to the parent SEU by parent_ref. The settlement re-run is a verifier pass over the chain.
No step requires the ISO to call us. No step requires the IPP to call us. No step requires the aggregator to call us. Anyone holding the receipts and the issuer registry can verify the chain offline. That's what earns this a place over an XML envelope on a TLS pipe.
Where the receipt meets the system already in production.
We're not trying to displace the systems already in production. We ride alongside them with a mirror endpoint and a signing key. The list below is the compatible upstream surface today, named by standard rather than by vendor. If your stack isn't on it, that's what the pilot conversation is for.
ISO market participant gateways.
The wholesale-market gateway each ISO operates for energy, capacity, and ancillary services. Bids and awards mirror to a signed receipt at the participant boundary.
OpenADR 3.0 endpoints.
The standard event signal path between a program operator, an aggregator, and a DER asset. Each event acknowledgement is a signed SFU candidate.
IEEE 2030.5 aggregation feeds.
Smart energy profile telemetry from DER assets to aggregators. Each curtailment, dispatch, and roll-up emits a signed receipt against the program reference.
ISO 15118 charging telemetry.
EV charging session telemetry. Each session emits a signed delivered-energy receipt that can be chained to a managed-charging or V2G program SFU.
Revenue-meter data systems.
The meter-data management system at the LSE, IPP, or aggregator. Each interval reading is signed at the meter class boundary with a calibration certificate reference.
Transmission tag and schedule rails.
The interchange tag and schedule submission paths between balancing authorities. Each tag acknowledgement is a signed schedule receipt.
Where the receipt earns its place in the regulatory record.
None of the items below requires a new market. All of them assume a court-grade artifact sits under each market action. The receipt is that artifact.
Order 2222: DER aggregation in wholesale markets.
The SFU roll-up gives ISO settlement a per-asset evidence chain, so the aggregator XML isn't the only evidence of record.
Network Code on Demand Response.
SFU and SAU primitives give aggregators and TSOs a cross-border evidence surface that survives the jurisdictional boundary.
2026 capacity reform.
The SEU carries the measurement window and test methodology reference. Capacity gets described by what the resource can actually do under stress, backed by a signature.
Capacity-performance and CIFR rules.
Dispatch and meter-data receipts share a parent_ref. The capacity-performance audit becomes a verifier pass over the chain instead of a month of forensic work.
SCR-related reliability adders.
Ancillary-service awards and frequency-response events are signed receipts the operator can check offline against the resource's qualified envelope.
CIP-013 supply-chain alignment.
Issuer DIDs and signing keys are registered, revocable identities. Every market-action artifact's history ties back to a named, supervised counterparty.
A short, honest list.
Before the room asks, the answer to each of these is no.
We're not a market clearing engine. We don't clear day-ahead, real-time, capacity, or ancillary markets. The ISO clears. We sign what the ISO cleared.
We're not a settlements platform. We don't issue invoices, manage shortfall charges, allocate uplift, or run the financial settlement runs. The ISO and the LSE settle. We supply the evidence chain the settlement leans on.
We're not an ISO replacement. The market participant credential is the ISO's. The tariff is the ISO's. The clearing is the ISO's. The dispatch authority is the ISO's. We're a signing layer that sits over the systems already in production.
We're not a SCADA system. We don't control breakers. We don't move set points. We don't dispatch units. We don't touch the operational-technology boundary of the grid. We sign what other systems did, after they did it, in a form that survives the audit.
One workflow first. One signed receipt.
The receipt is the message. The chain is the audit. The verifier is offline.
The receipt cryptography is real, and you can verify it offline today. Mainnet routing is still in simulation. The public payment rail we use is USDC on Base. Anything heavier runs on a permissioned, issuer-controlled settlement network, plainly labeled as such. The pilot we'd like to run is one capacity test, one ancillary bid, one delivered MWh, or one flex obligation. After that, it's just configuration.