Zenodys > Case Studies > Off-Grid Demand Response Energy Solution

Off-Grid Demand Response Energy Solution

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 Off-Grid Demand Response Energy Solution - IoT ONE Case Study
Technology Category
  • Networks & Connectivity - Gateways
  • Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Connectivity Platforms
  • Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Data Management Platforms
Applicable Industries
  • Utilities
Applicable Functions
  • Business Operation
Use Cases
  • Microgrid
The Customer
About The Customer
FabCity, an off-grid Smart Energy Campus, is taking place on Java-eiland in Amsterdam. The purpose of the event is to carry out research on the future of smart cities in Europe in search of new social, economical, sustainable, logistic and political syste
The Challenge
Smart energy and next generation buildings are one of FabCity’s key topics and the Zenodys team was invited there to provide a microgrid demand response power management solution. Next generation buildings are built with a purpose to be energy sustainable and include power-generation capabilities, windmills, solar panels, self-sufficient units, etc. These buildings can generate their own power. However, when connected to a microgrid, other opportunities open up: power exchange among buildings, common storage facility, smart power management, etc. This will become an important part of the future smart cities. Microgrids are a promising concept and are expected to become one of the main energy sources in the future. In order to function as intended, microgrids must be efficiently managed with smart demand response algorithms. The aim of a microgrid is to be as self-sufficient as possible. However, this is not always the case. When the sun shines and there is plenty of wind, the participants generate their own power. But on cloudy or windless days green energy is not always available. To compensate for this, a microgrid also features a battery that stores surplus energy and provides backup power when needed.
The Solution
Three companies – Zown, Mpare and Zenodys – partnered together to design a reliable microgrid solution. Zown provided on-site connectivity, Mpare took care of power measurement and Zenodys supplied microgrid management logic.

Our role is to gather and process measurements, develop efficient demand response strategies and visualize microgrid dynamics via an easy-to-understand web interface.

The solution is based on the Zenodys visual IoT platform that handles most of the tasks without any programming needed:

ZenoConnect provides connectivity of various smart energy vendors (houses, windmills, PV panels, batteries, etc.) and connects them to the microgrid. It can also be easily integrated with Mpare and HelloData services.
ZenoVisual provides demand response logic and delivery of different strategies.
ZenoExperience is used for data delivery and visualization. A fine-tuned web visual interface provides easy-to-understand information for the end user.
Zenobox physically connects all the equipment and services and provides a runtime environment. In this case we chose the Linux based Raspberry PI system but for a production-ready environment we would use more robust industrial gateways.

The solution is fully independent and can run off-line, but for demonstration purposes we also enabled remote solution delivery and Docker based services deployments.
Operational Impact
  • [Efficiency Improvement - R&D]
    Visual environment enables participants and other providers to set up their solutions fast and without any programming. This enables engineering teams to directly work on their internet of things solutions.
  • [Efficiency Improvement - Energy]
    The solution for the FabCity was delivered fast and they managed to overcome Internet of Things and smart energy challenges, hardware interoperability, infrastructure gap between the edge and cloud, and on-the-edge challenges – in a really short time.
  • [Efficiency Improvement - Integration]
    Zenodys offers an off-the-shelf demand response solution that is highly flexible and efficient, has been tested in real cases, can be easily integrated into buildings, factories, cities and other microgrid environments, and managed via a fully visual environment.

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