IoT Power Consumption Control and Monitoring

The client is a fast-growing US-based company* in the energy management and storage sector. The company engineered state-of-the-art hardware — a smart box installed next to an ordinary circuit breaker panel. The system enables responsive management of the household’s power consumption, storage and pricing. It provides unprecedented visibility and control over the household’s energy usage and facilitates the adoption of renewables.

Since 2017, Digiteum has been working on the client’s IoT energy monitoring platform as a dedicated development team. The team was assigned to design, implement and enhance the platform’s functionality and build applications for different end-users.

Since the beginning of this partnership, Digiteum team has developed and configured a range of software and middleware tools and IoT infrastructure solutions for the client’s Internet of Things and energy consumption management system.

• Distributed scalable infrastructure which allows to capture, store, process and analyze sensory data and ensure its security and consistency.
• Data analytics and visualization tools to provide end-users with observability for energy consumption insights and trends and explore metrics and telemetry.
• Highly maintainable, testable and independently deployable Golang backend to handle hardware operations, multiple user roles and enable reliable connectivity between all system parts.
• Natively compiled cross-platform mobile and web applications and incredibly fast rendering for end-users to monitor and remotely control electricity usage and loads, pricing, solar power production and energy storage.
• Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery pipelines for reliable and testable release process management and microservices deployment.

Today, the client’s system stands out among other IoT projects on energy conservation and management and is recognized by a number of leading companies in the Internet of Things green technology sector, including big solar and energy storage players. During the past few years, the system has transformed from a home power management system to a complex decentralized grid ecosystem available for every householder at an affordable price. A mixture of smart hardware and software solutions, now it allows households not only to save money by simple circuits management. The system acts as a central point for communication between different energy modules, such as PV, storage and incoming power, and optimizes their performance.

*INNOVATOR OF THE YEAR (2019 BY CBIC)
*FEATURED AMONG INITIAL WAVE OF TECHBUZZ COMPANIES (2019 BY MAVA)
*NAMED AS “TECHNOLOGY THAT IS SUPER IMPORTANT” (SPI 2019 MEDIA ROUND-UP)
*FEATURED AMONG CLEAN TECH ENTREPRENEURS (CMU ENERGY WEEK 2019)

Energy management platform is a great example of using Internet of Things for energy monitoring and management. This solution transforms the way people and companies use and control electricity, electrical devices, loads and power storage. It consists of a smart hardware, software and data tools. Once equipped with this system, a house, office building or any other facility turns into a smart space with a rich set of features and capabilities for power consumption monitoring and control. Among them:

• electric circuit management and remote control, detecting possible anomalies,
• real-time analytics and visualization of power consumption telemetry, predictive calculation of electricity cost using the demand-based approach,
• unique off-grid experience with immediate outage detection, real-time reporting on system operation and push notifications sent directly on the user’s mobile phone,
• entire house back-up with dynamic load management — users select and keep the most important power feeds on in the case of power outage,
• optimized installation and performance of power storage and solar panels.

Thanks to IoT monitoring tools integrated into the system, different categories of end-users — households, electricity suppliers, utilities and construction companies, PV manufacturers and installers, environmentalists and researchers — gain incredible visibility into power consumption.

Smart homes and smart buildings

Households and the residents of smart buildings get multiple benefits from using the client’s IoT power monitoring and management system. Apart from responsive control over electricity distribution, consumption, load and cost, the system provides tools for safer, more environmentally friendly and less wasteful energy usage. 

Among other benefits are predictive cost calculation, usage insights, automated energy consumption regimes and a whole-home backup when paired with a storage system. In fact, the client’s platform is claimed to save up to $10k on a home storage installation and help get the best of in-house solar production. 

On top of all, despite its complexity and loaded functionality, the system is easy to install and configure using an intuitive mobile app in a matter of taps and works consistently both in online and offline modes. 

Electricity suppliers and utilities

Utility companies and electricity suppliers get previously unavailable control over their resources and valuable insights to make data-driven business decisions. Using the rich features of IoT and power consumption telemetry, they are able to monitor and control energy supply in real-time, determine energy usage trends and monitor loads, develop dynamic utility plans and build informative visualizations and reporting.

Construction companies 

Construction companies can install the client’s IoT energy management platform in new buildings making them smarter, greener and safer in terms of electricity usage and decreasing the cost of construction and maintenance. The system will provide the future residents with a ready-to-go solution for optimizing power consumption and pricing. 

Solar panel and storage manufacturers and installers

Producers and installers of PV power and storage systems integrate with the client’s platform to add valuable functionality to their products (load monitoring and control, real-time reporting and energy usage intelligence, power outage detection, smart off-grid operation).

For researchers and environmentalists

Researchers, environmental engineers and conservation specialists make one more important user category. These groups leverage the valuable data created and collected by energy management devices, study power consumption patterns and use these insights to create forward-looking energy conservation strategy. Thanks to Internet of Things and energy consumption telemetry, researchers are able to leverage the historical data on energy supply and usage to get a bigger picture and statistics for research purposes.

• Middleware and software development for Internet of Things project in cleantech and green energy.
• Real time data processing for electricity consumption for the whole home and separate circuits, incoming power from solar panels and saved power in storages.
• Interaction with home appliances and entire home energy via simple web interface and mobile apps on iOS and Android: turn devices on/off, plan usage and costs by setting smart schedules for circuits operation in different life scenarios.
• Electronic device recognition based on smart algorithms.
• Identification of usage patterns and energy consumption trends.
• Automated control and configuration of energy supply.
• Big data collection, analytics, visualization and reporting.
• Detection of abnormalities and dangerous operation of electric appliances.
• Improved security and prevention of overloads and malfunctions.
• Control over power backup priorities allows staying flexible in case of power outage.