SBIR Phase II: Transforming Complex Utility Transaction Management

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力正在使6800万美国天然气消费者及其交易经理和合作伙伴能够真实的实时访问交易状态，享受对其交易的持续控制，在短于行业当前每月会计周期的时间内结算交易，并享受更高级别的安全性。美国天然气工业以其目前的实际形式运作了世纪多，在过去四十年中，该工业通过各种政策和监管行动逐步发展，向数千方开放交易参与。在其他行业，过去20年引入了共享交易信息和自动化选择功能的数字功能，但这些发展并没有融入天然气交易管理流程。拟议的解决方案将作为多方进行行业创新的平台，降低交易成本并提高速度。这一创新将在其他以复杂的多方交易为特征的行业中得到应用。 SBIR第二阶段项目旨在推进区块链创新和相关技术，以改变生产、传输、分配和消费功能中复杂的天然气公用事业交易管理流程。该解决方案将加速第三代智能合同框架的开发，该框架具有用户友好/交互式人机界面（HMI）以及基于人工智能的预测和交互式智能合同功能，并具有先进的网络安全措施。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is empowering the 68 million U.S. natural gas consumers and their transaction managers and partners to access transaction status in real time, enjoy continuous control of their transactions, settle transactions in time scales less than the industry’s current monthly accounting cycle, and enjoy heightened levels of security. The United States natural gas industry has operated in its present physical form for more than a century, and over the past four decades the industry has evolved through various policy and regulatory actions to open transaction participation to thousands of parties. In other industries, the past two decades have introduced digital capabilities that share transaction information and automate select functions, but these developments have not enjoyed infusion in natural gas transaction management processes. The proposed solution will serve as a platform for industry innovation by multiple parties, reducing transaction cost and increasing speed. This innovation will have applications in other industries characterized by complex, multi-party transactions. This SBIR Phase II project proposes to advance blockchain innovations and related technologies to transform complex natural gas utility transaction management processes across production, transmission, distribution and consumption functions. The proposed solution will accelerate the development of third-generation smart contracting frameworks with user-friendly/interactive human-machine-interfaces (HMI) and predictive and interactive smart contracting functionalities based on artificial intelligence, and with advanced cybersecurity measures.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.