# The $10T Problem OpenVPP is Solving

The energy industry conducts trillions of dollars in payments every year on rails built for human‑initiated, once‑a‑month billing cycles, and manually measured settlements that can take up to 6 months to clear for powerplants and energy providers. Legacy centralized payment systems were never built for the real-time, machine‑to‑machine micro‑transactions demanded by smart meters and DERs.&#x20;

Existing utility payment systems and meter and billing management systems suffer from the following key inefficiencies:

* Exclusive of 3rd Party Meters: Utility payment networks today run on proprietary networks limited to their meters only and unable to extend to direct-to-device payments.&#x20;
* Fragmentation & Counterparty Risks: In the scenario a utility has integrated to a device, each utility or device vendor must build specific non-scalable “one off” integrations, leading to high maintenance, complex deal structures and multi-stakeholder counterparty risk.
* Slow Manual Payment Processes: Clearing and reconciliation can take months, stalling cash‑flow and obstructing real‑time grid balancing and blocking use cases that require immediate settlement.
* Inflexible Units of Payment & Accounting: Pricing units are not tailored to the specific kWh and sub‑kWh increments that utilities operate in, they do not denominate tracking in alternative units (e.g., CO₂ avoided), or reward customers instantly for demand‑response events.
* Centralization Risks: A few antiquated systems hold the keys to payment data, exposing utilities to single‑point failures, high transaction and integration fees, and escalating cybersecurity risks.

Meanwhile, none of the current decentralized on-chain solutions are designed to the energy sector’s unique need of ultra-high volume micropayments and instantaneous settlement of physical‑assets.

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