The 10 Best-In-Class SMART GRID Tech Solution Providers, 2018

www.insightssuccess.com June 2018

10

THE

BEST IN CLASS

RID

TECH SOLUTION PROVIDERS 2018

e-mobility and SmartGrid E-Mobility: Pioneering Transportation with Smart Grid

Digi Connection BeneďŹ ts of Blockchain in the making of a Smarter Energy Grid

Organizations that are changing the way we live

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lectricity demand throughout the world is steadily increasing, causing high power system loading resulting in overstressed system equipment. Public interest groups are putting pressure on politicians to reduce CO2 emissions through the adoption of alternative energy sources and put in place regulations to increase energy efficiency.

The traditional or conventional non-renewable resources are undoubtedly insufficient in such condition.

The hunt for more efficient and sustainable resources or options to reduce electricity usage has become more tempting than ever before. Hence, the power system will need to become smarter at balancing demand and supply.

The major electric power industry stakeholders i.e. utilities, vendors, manufacturers, regulators, consumers and their advocates, and governments recognize the need to address challenging issues that are motivating to find a better option like developing and implementing the smart grid and its elements.

Smart grid is widely recognized as the future of modern electrical power systems. It involves modernizing existing networks, changing the way they operate, facilitating changes in the behavior of energy consumers, providing new services, and supporting the transition to a sustainable low-carbon economy.

The adoption of Smart Grid devices throughout utility networks can effect tremendous change in grid operations and usage of electricity over the next two decades.

Many smart grid advocates cite some or all of its following attributes as representative of its promise.

According to them the smart grid is highly efficient and capable of meeting increased consumer demand without adding infrastructure. It is accommodating as it accept energy from virtually any fuel source, including solar and wind, as easily and transparently as coal and natural gas; capable of integrating any

and all better ideas and technologies (energy storage technologies, for example) as they are marketproven and ready to come on-line.

Additionally it enables real-time communication between the consumer and utility so consumers can tailor their energy consumption based on individual preferences, such as price and/or environmental concerns. With real-time assistance the system is also capable of delivering the power quality necessary, free of sags, spikes, disturbances, and interruptions, to power our increasingly digital economy and the data centers, computers, and electronics necessary to make it run.

The feather on hat feature of smart grid it is slowing the advance of global climate change and offering a genuine path toward significant environmental improvement in the impact of electric power serving humanity.

Hence, the industry is creating new opportunities and markets by means of its ability to capitalize on plug-and-play innovation wherever and whenever appropriate. Many companies around the world are trying to leverage the potential opportunities held by this sector.

So, in the issue of “The 10 Best-In-Class SMART GRID Tech Solution Providers, 2018”, we have highlighted some of the most renowned organizations around the world which are working round the clock to provide best in class smart grid solutions.

Our shortlist of companies includes, Kalkitech, a smart grid solutions provider that helps energy utilities across the globe to improve energy efficiency; OhmConnect, which is a software-based power plant which pays households to reduce their energy use; Power Ledger, which is the world leading peer-to-peer marketplace for renewable energy; Sympower, a demand response aggregator that connects electrical appliances with the electricity grid, providing grid operators low-carbon balancing services and reserves; ZOME Energy Networks, Inc., which provides software and services for energy service providers, hardware vendors, and infrastructure players. The company offers various demand response solutions and energy management services for HAN/DR rollouts; SmartWorks, which provides feature-rich data focused solutions that analyze a utility’s operational data; ETAP, a company providing the most comprehensive and widely used enterprise solution for generation, transmission, distribution, industrial, transportation, and low-voltage power systems; Smart Hydro Power, which offers complete solutions for off grid solutions and micro grids; and Limejump, which is connecting trading and data abilities with customers that are generating and managing energy assets through to energy markets to optimize value throughout.

Also don’t forget to flip through some insightful CXO’s written by industry leaders and articles penned by our in-house editorial team Happy Reading!

Kaustav Roy

Contents 10

Smart in Vision Be Smart – or Vanish Why Utilities need to actively develop smart Micro-Grids

Articles Digi Connection Benefits of Blockchain in the making of Smarter Energy Grids

32

Tech Perspective

Rising mobile workforce and its challenges in the mobile-cloud era: Data & endpoint management

46

Expert’s Foresight Beyond Automation: AI powered Autonomous Factories of the Future

Editor’s Choice The Universality of IoT Technology

E-Mobility E-Mobility: Pioneering Transportation with Smart Grid

16 24 38

ETAP

14

Powering the Smart Grid

Kalkitech Delivering Smart Grid Technology Globally

20

22 OhmConnect Connecting Smart Energy Grids with Homes

30 SmartWorks Unleashing the Power of your Data

42 ZOME Energy Networks A Smarter Way to Optimize Distributed Energy Resources

Limejump Connecting Energy Trade with Big Data

28 Power Ledger Transforming the World by Trading Renewable Energy

36 Sympower Creating a Sustainable Grid through Demand Management

44

Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Executive Editors Assistant Editors Contributing Editors Visualiser Art & Design Director Associate Designer Co-designer

Pooja M. Bansal Anish Miller Kaustav Roy Jenny Fernandes Sourav Mukherjee Ishan Mittal Kedar Kulkarni David King Amol Kamble Nagesh Tembhekar Aparna Vanzul

Art & Picture Editor Paul Belin Jayant Khanna Senior Sales Manager Passi D. Business Development Manager Peter Collins Marketing Manager John Matthew Business Development Executives Steve, Joe, Alan, Bhushan Sales Executives David, Kevin, Mark, Vijay Technical Head Jacob Smile Technical Specialist Amar, Pratiksha Digital Marketing Manager Marry D’Souza Online Marketing Strategist Alina Sege, Shubham Mahadik, Vaibhav K SME-SMO Executives Prashant Chevale, Uma Dhenge, Gemson, Irfan Research Analyst Chidiebere Moses Circulation Manager Robert, Tanaji Database Management Stella Andrew Technology Consultant David Stokes sales@insightssuccess.com

June, 2018 Corporate Ofces: Insights Success Media Tech LLC 555 Metro Place North, Suite 100, Dublin, OH 43017, United States Phone - (614)-602-1754 Email: info@insightssuccess.com For Subscription: www.insightssuccess.com

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10

THE

BEST

IN CLASS

RID

TECH SOLUTION

PROVIDERS 2018

Company Name

Management

Brief

ETAP etap.com

Dr. Farrokh Shokooh President & CEO

ETAP provides the most comprehensive and widely used enterprise solution for generation, transmission, distribution, industrial, transportation, and low-voltage power systems.

GridRabbit gridrabbit.com

Henrik Westergaard Founder & CEO

The GridRabbitTM system offers an impressive array of smart devices, which communicate with each other across the ZigBeeTM wireless mesh network.

Kalkitech kalkitech.com

Prasanth Gopalakrishnan President, CEO & Founder

Kalkitech is a smart grid solutions provider that helps energy utilities across the globe to improve energy efficiency.

Limejump limejump.com

Erik Nygard CEO

Limejump is connecting trading and data abilities with customers that are generating and managing energy assets through to energy markets to optimize value throughout.

OhmConnect ohmconnect.com

Matt Duesterberg CEO & Co-founder

OhmConnect is a software-based power plant which pays households to reduce their energy use.

PowerLedger powerledger.io

Dr. Jemma Green Co-founder & Chairman

Power Ledger is the world leading peer-to-peer marketplace for renewable energy.

Smart Hydro Power smart-hydro.de

Dr. Karl Kolmsee CEO

Smart Hydro Power offers complete solutions for off grid solutions and micro grids.

SmartWorks harrissmartworks.com

Brad Atchison Senior Executive Vice President

SmartWorks provides feature-rich data focused solutions that analyze a utility’s operational data.

Sympower sympower.net

Simon Bushell Co-founder & CEO

Sympower is a demand response aggregator that connects electrical appliances with the electricity grid, providing low-carbon balancing services to grid operators.

ZOME Energy Networks zomepower.com

Dr. Alex Papalexopoulos CEO and Chairman

ZOME Energy Networks, Inc. provides software and services for energy service providers, hardware vendors, and infrastructure players. The company offers various demand response solutions and energy management services for HAN/DR/DER rollouts.

Smart in Vision

Be Smart – or Vanish Why Utilities need to actively develop smart Micro-Grids

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he energy market is changing rapidly. This is true not only for the USA and Europe but on a global level. Possibly the most important change is the one towards more decentralized systems. This is challenging the utility industry.

Utilities historically have developed by integrating small microgrids which grew around mills and other small-scale generators (today we would say prosumers). This is why utilities developed along the entire value chain: They integrated these micro distribution grids in a more stable larger (Transport) grid and replaced decentralized generation by more cost-efficient central power plants. This highly efficient centralized system was allowing industrial development as we know it. At its time it was possibly the only way to serve large, strongly energy depending production like steel, paper or the upcoming chemical industry. The centralized energy system did not result from an oligopolistic market, but the industry structure derived from an efficient technical design.

There are several reasons why this formerly beneficiary system is challenged today. Not all apply in all markets but some of them do, so decentralization of energy markets is a global trend. Specifically, in most

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industrial markets the new energy regime is driven by politics favoring small scale, decentral renewable generation. Subsidies on renewables devalue existing large thermic power plants. Even large-scale hydropower plants do not easily pass strict environmental and social feasibility analysis. But independent of any political setting there is another more fundamental reason for the growing competitiveness of a decentralized energy design. While the first phase of industrial development is known for its industrial clusters (often grown close to energy sources like coal or water) which shaped many geographic areas for more than a century, later phases are much more dynamic and do less depend on geographic proximity. Within a dynamic industry setting where businesses are set up and closed or moved somewhere else on a regular basis a static centralized infrastructure loses competitiveness.

In many emerging markets this dynamism as well expands towards those areas which are today not connected to the central grid but offer inexpensive land or new agricultural products which can be sold abroad at high prices. Finally, the political will and the industrial demand for decentralized systems today encounter renewable generation even at small size at competitive costs

compared to large size thermic power plant. For the most prominent renewable technology photovoltaic in the North (with less radiation) this competitiveness is given only as grid parity, meaning central generation plus transport is as expensive as photovoltaic on site. In the Southern hemisphere photovoltaic is already a competitive source empowering decentralized energy infrastructure.

While decentralized generation has caught up with centralized generation plants, distribution systems with a large portion of decentralized renewable generation capacity are often inefficient. There are basically four reasons for this inefficiency: (1) Missing price mechanism supporting grid operations, (2) high costs to operate such a system stable, (3) large amount of excess energy (exported or not being used at all) and (4) sub-utilized interface between microgrid and its feeder system. These are basically the same reasons that in the last century supported the centralization of the grid system. What is needed is an intelligent or smart decentralized distribution system.

An intelligent distribution system with mainly decentralized generation requires more than smart meters and it is different from today popular so June 2018

About the Author Dr. Karl Kolmsee the CEO of Smart Hydro Power, studied agricultural and philosophy at the universities of Hamburg and Goettingen, Germany. After his PhD he has spent most of his professional career in the energy business – first as consultant at A.T. Kearney later as manager at E.ON, Europe’s largest private utility, and member of the board at Schmack biogas, one of the pioneers of the biogas market in Europe. In 2009 Karl Kolmsee has been nominated professor for energy management at Applied University of Kufstein, Austria. His main areas of academic work are international energy markets and renewable energy. In 2010 he founded Smart Hydro Power to focus on design and commercialization of kinetic pico hydro power systems with main focus on rural electrification for emerging markets like India, Latin America and Eastern Africa. Today Smart Hydro Power offers complete solutions for off grid solutions and micro grids.

June 2018

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Smart in Vision

called smart home or home storage solutions. These offer photovoltaic, battery and basic load management for the individual household. Some providers of home storage solutions integrate customers in a community model to allow exchange of autogenerated electricity. But these communities are barely more than contract partners within a fixed price net metering model. Individual home solutions – even within sales-and-purchase communities – do not solve any inefficiency issues decentralization faces. These systems are either completely self-sufficient – in this case they are expensive – or they rely on central grid services like a parasite of its host. Sustainable decentralization requires an intelligent control and steering mechanism between the households which build a microgrid.

While there are possibly different steering mechanisms, establishing a local market with the price as variable that guides demand and supply according to the aggregated demand function and the aggregated cost functions seems promising. Technically this does require a dynamic forecasting and load management (at least for major loads which are used in a price-sensitive manner).

At first glance a market model would solve the four major issues shown above. It would set a price for photovoltaic and battery storage which would control demand and thereby reduce necessary installed reserve storage and generation capacity. This mechanism would

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as well be consistent with the functioning of the feeder grid and could therefore supply itself services to this grid which would be valued with the same “currency”.

Technically this steering mechanism might be completely decentralized based on individual processors in each household like the blockchain technology (once necessary processing capacity comes down to acceptable limits) or it might work between a central unit and individual processors. In either way it steers the local market place towards an efficient optimum given generation, demand and battery storage capacity at a defined point in time.

Micro grids do open (within a given legal framework) a possibility for traditional utilities to re-define their role using some of their traditional strengths. But new entrants can equally well enter this space and perform wherever the incumbent does not adapt. This gives room to numerous co-operations between new entrants or between new companies and the incumbent offering their services or developing new business models along the value chain. Incumbent utilities may be smart – or vanish.

June 2018

ETAP

Powering the Smart Grid

I

n the electric power sector, the demand to take proactive action rather than simply reacting to events after they happen is requiring intelligent applications to provide realtime predictive power system simulation, optimization and automation. Hence, efficient and content-specific information exchange embedded with model-driven engineering systems is essential to the design and operation of modern electrical power networks. One company leading the industry and raising the bar with every passing year is ETAP. Operation Technology, Inc. (ETAP) is the designer and developer of ETAP software for modeling, design, analysis, optimization, monitoring, control, and automation of electrical power systems. The company has been powering success for more than 32 years by providing the most comprehensive and widely-used enterprise solutions for power generation, transmission, distribution, industrial, transportation, and lowvoltage power systems.

ETAP has been offering intelligent solutions to the power grid long before the grid became ‘smart’. ETAP technology has been built from modeling to operation; a model-driven power system platform that acts as a hub to incorporate all aspects of system design, analysis, management and optimization through real-time simulation and operation.

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ETAP Grid™ solution is addressing the market needs by providing an open and scalable approach to a smart grid strategy. ETAP offers industry specific solutions to proactively reduce peak demand and optimize network assets, while assisting distribution networks to deliver electricity more efficiently, reliably, securely and economically.

depend on ETAP. In the renewable sector, ETAP enables designers and engineers to conceptualize the collector systems, determine wind penetration and perform grid interconnection studies with fullspectrum power system analysis calculations for accurate simulation, predictive analysis, equipment sizing, and field verification of wind and solar farms.

An Inspiring Journey of an Unflinching Leader Dr. Farrokh Shokooh founded ETAP in 1986 and since then has served as President and CEO of the company.

Farrokh earned his PhD degree in Electrical Power Engineering from Louisiana State University in 1979. He is also a fellow of IEEE and a recipient of IEEE Third Millennium Medal.

In 1985, Farrokh’s vision was to make the most capable and intuitive electrical power system analysis software utilizing a single platform with one database. Today, ETAP has more than 500 employees and representatives in 75+ countries, guaranteeing global reach and local presence.

Ÿ

Transmission: ETAP’s Transmission System platform combines detailed substation models, network topology, system analysis, planning, protection and Supervisory Control & Data Acquisition (SCADA) and Energy Management (EMS) into one common database.

Ÿ

Distribution: ETAP’s Distribution System planning and operation solution offers a geospatial-driven platform for today’s smart grids.

ETAP provides an integrated power system planning, protection, and Advanced Distribution Management System (ADMS) for visualizing, managing, optimizing and automating - from state to citywide power distribution networks.

Ÿ

Microgrid: ETAP is used for detailed analyses and sizing of Distributed Energy Resources (DER) and associated equipment.

Microgrid Master Controller brings

Unmatched Range of Scalable Analytics and Integrated Operation Solutions ETAP offers an integrated suite of smart grid solutions in various sectors: Ÿ Generation: From Renewable to Nuclear, some of the world’s most advanced power generation plants

June 2018

“

We aim to provide state-of-the-art products and superior engineering services by combining advanced technologies with the highest standard in quality to achieve overall customer satisfaction.

Dr. Farrokh Shokooh

“

President & CEO

the design to life by connecting the system model with real-time data. A mix of DER along with traditional generation can be included as part of the ETAP Smart Grid and Microgrid, offering a coordinated control between DMS and local microgrid master controllers.

devices such as impedance relays and fuses, as well as solutions to identify and evaluate various mitigation methods to reduce arc flash hazards. Ÿ

ADMS – Advanced Distribution Management System software built on proven ETAP Real-Time™ platform that integrates with GIS, eSCADA, OMS and other applications.

Ÿ

iCE™ – Controllers and Remote Terminal Units (RTU) hardware, tested with ETAP solutions for optimal performance, fast response, and cyber security.

Ÿ

iSub™ – Substation Automation System (SAS) providing protection, Switching Sequence Management, Switching Order Management, automation, and IEC 61850 oriented substation automation.

Ÿ

ILS™ – Intelligent Load Shedding system for industrial and utility systems from simple demand response to machine learning, based on high speed load shedding.

ETAP’s Presence and Products in the Smart Grid Domain ETAP Grid adds intelligent situational awareness to the power grid operations by offering a comprehensive smart grid solution: Ÿ Grid Modeling & Visualization – Network model management and intelligent synchronized network views, including Geospatial (GIS) electrical diagrams, Substation diagrams, and Feeder schematic views. Ÿ

Analysis & Optimization – Comprehensive system planning, optimization, and network analysis - from Time Domain Load Flow (TDLF) and Volt/Var Optimization (VVO) to Contingency Analysis (CA) and Fault Location, Isolation & Service Restoration (FLISR).

new technology in the software’s core design and development, as well as address the specific needs of the industry in some of the world’s most mission-critical projects and smart cities.

“It is challenging, exciting, and rewarding to bring to life a new product while enabling the transformation of our customers’ networks into an intelligent, adaptive, and sustainable grid that provides reliable and quality energy for their respective customers. We are determined to continue developing and deploying our innovative technologies to aid electric utilities to reach their vision of a smarter grid,” states Farrokh Shokooh, President and CEO of ETAP.

Path to a Smarter Grid Ÿ

Safety & Protection – Applications for troubleshooting false tripping and mis-operation of protective

June 2018

ETAP’s objective is to continue innovating, adopting, and integrating

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Digi Connection

Smarter Energy Grids

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June 2018

H

uman beings have always looked up to nature and made efforts to learn from its basic principles.

Sonars were inspired by dolphins, light bulbs by fireflies, suction cups by octopus and robots itself to replicate human beings. One such instance that has been enthused by microorganisms is distributed ledger technology (DLT), widely known as blockchain.

“The blockchain is an incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions that can be programmed to record not just financial transactions but virtually everything of value.”

-Don & Alex Tapscott.

It records transactions between two clients without any third party authentication which is an efficient process when it comes to stable data. Blockchain provides data management without the threat of unauthorized access or manipulations. It is proving to be a solution for frequent problems in various fields. Blockchain technology has the capability to disrupt approximately every industry ranging from finance, to education to power.

Smart Meters Smart meters are used to record electrical usage. These meters enable us to monitor our electrical consumption more precisely which will help consumers make better energy choices. Through blockchain, clients can directly get the amount spent which eradicates middleman thus saving money. This creates a more resilient network for gadgets to run on. Smart meters can also provide accurate data to the provider without needing a direct link to the meter of particular users.

With the help of blockchain, producers of smart grids do not have to invest a humongous amount. Here the producers get paid instantly, which leads to less capital expenditure.

Besides this, blockchain can play a serious role in adjusting power flows through the amalgamation and optimization of local grids measured by the public or consortium modes. It can aid in the maintenance of permanent records by servicers, giving a flawless view of a particular object or part of infrastructure at any given time. This information can be retrieved easily as the structure is built on a shared platform, while retaining the authenticity of the record.

Blockchain Technology in Smarter Grids One of the areas in the energy industry where blockchain technology can disrupt the market is smart grids. Lately, blockchain has been well-thought-out as one of the developing technologies that can be used for developing decentralized grid topologies and revising the distributed management of energy businesses. Blockchain database is shared by all the nodes in the system. A node is an active device which can be connected to internet and has an IP address. Examples of devices include computers, tablets, phones and even printers. The job of a node is to upkeep the network by maintaining a copy of the blockchain and process transactions.

Benefits of Blockchain in Smarter Grids Blockchain can aid numerous utility industry requirements.

It can act as a foundation stone with the possibility of disrupting the prevailing ecosystem. With the promotion for e-vehicles and individuals shifting to electric cars, supply and demand of energy needs to keep pace. Here blockchain comes in the scenario with its peer-to-peer interconnectivity and sharing. This balances the demand from several foundations and makes the grid smarter by directing sharing.

As there are small and compact smart grids, consumers with the help of blockchain can simply trade energy with one another thus saving time and earning a few dollars. In the power industry, blockchain technology can ensure a 5D Impact: decentralization, digitization, democratization, distribution and deregulation.

June 2018

While the possible benefits of the Smart Grid are usually discussed in terms of renewable energy goals, economics and national security, it has the potential to help save money by managing your electricity usage and choosing the best times to purchase electricity. Consumers can save even more by generating their power with the help of blockchain.

Lately, due to the speedy growth in the deployment of DEPs the smart grid organization problems can no longer be proficiently addressed using centralized approaches, thus, the necessity for visionary decentralized methodologies and architectures is widely recognized.

It is assessed that the blockchain technology will add another $3.1 trillion by 2030. Lately, due to the speedy growth in the deployment of DEPs the smart grid organization problems can no longer be proficiently addressed using centralized approaches, thus, the necessity for visionary decentralized methodologies and architectures is widely recognized.

Lastly, blockchain technology may eventually fast-track the evolution to what the power industry calls a “distributed world.” It is the sum of both small and large powergeneration structures for communities, businesses and home. To prosper in capitalizing the potential of distributed generation and supervising less foreseeable and more capricious renewable power sources, the trade's infrastructure must first become more agile and less centralized.

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Kalkitech: Delivering Smart Grid Technology Globally

T

he global surge in electricity consumption has created a dire need for smart, adaptive power grids. One company committed to providing smart grid technology solutions is Kalkitech.

Founded in 1998, the company has developed a prolific technology portfolio of products for power generation, transmission and distribution. Kalkitech’s smart grid technology allows power companies to bridge the data communications gap between legacy and smart power utility field devices and head-end systems.

Kalkitech also helps utilities improve system reliability and operational efficiency while extending the life of legacy SCADA systems. This is achieved by transforming and accelerating secure access to real-time and historical data.

The company’s acquisition of Applied Systems Engineering (ASE) in 2015 added market-leading substation and distribution utility communications protocol testing products to its product portfolio.

Aiding Global Transformation Kalkitech helps energy and utility companies across the globe improve

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energy efficiency by providing standards-based technology products and solutions in Substation Automation, Distribution Automation, Advanced Metering, Wide Area Monitoring, Power Plant Optimization and energy IoT management.

The company’s services include consulting, protocol implementation, training, testing and validation. It educates utilities, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and System Integrators on its own as well as industry standard smart grid technologies and their deployment. It invests extensively in research and development, collaborates with leading utilities, and partners with regional leaders across the globe to provide industry-leading technology solutions to customers in over 70 countries.

Kalkitech assists its customers to reduce time-to-market and save on R&D time and costs by integrating technological innovations and emerging communication standards into their existing products; thus helping in extending their product’s reach and application scope.

Kalkitech has been enabling utilities to transform and automate operations.

The company understands that during the evolution of an end-to-end smart

grid, legacy systems will have to coexist and integrate with new technologies.

Thus, it designs its solutions to aid in intelligent utility transformation by supporting legacy and standards-based technologies and bridging the communication gap. In taking this approach, Kalkitech is well positioned to meet the utility needs both of today and of the future.

A Power-Charged Leader Kalkitech’s strategic direction is dictated by Prasanth Gopalakrishnan who is the President, CEO and Founder of the company.

He is a member of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) LITD 10 and has participated in the development of the IEC 62056 standard.

Prasanth founded the company with the vision to create an industry leader in energy optimization and standardsbased communications. To achieve this, he brought together a team of professionals who possessed both a strong technical foundation and had extensive utility industry experience.

“A key element of the company’s success is its commitment to product quality and customer service, which have helped to build the company’s reputation,” says Prasanth.

Providing Cutting-Edge Technology Kalkitech offers top-notch customized technology services to the energy and utility industries. Its services group helps utilities keep pace with modernization projects and offer the adaptability to support new and emerging industry trends. Among its most marketing-leading products and services are:

June 2018

“

“

Our solutions enable customers to implement mission-critical applications across the Smart Grid solution spectrum.

Prasanth Gopalakrishnan President, CEO & Founder

Ÿ

Ÿ

Ÿ

Ÿ

A Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition protocol conversion engine which consolidates and translates data from more than 80 vendor-specific and standardsbased protocols that simplify management of grid assets and accelerate problem solving.

This technology is offered as a substation data concentrator as well as an embedded solution for OEMs to integrate into their utility products.

Protocol test tools used by automation engineers to configure, analyze, test and simulate more than 70 serial and network SCADA protocols, simplifying problem solving and reporting.

Metering-related technology: a field-proven DLMS source code library available to meter vendors to conform to the standard for communications, and a standardsbased low-power radio frequency wireless mesh communications network for smart meter vendors to connect their meters to a head-end system.

A secure, automated fault record collection and remote configuration

June 2018

system for relays and other substation Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs). Ÿ

Power dispatch optimization software for power transmission, generation and distribution.

Ÿ

Power plant optimization, diagnostics and analytics software.

Kalkitech also offers consultation services to assist customers in integrating its technology as well as customizing them for specific requirements.

The support department comprises a strong technical team of trained and experienced individuals. Using a welldefined, multi-tiered support structure, customer inquiries are reviewed and addressed in a timely fashion via email or phone.

With support teams in multiple locations around the world, Kalkitech is able to accelerate its response to customer questions and issues.

massive volume of data generated by intelligent devices installed across their coverage area.

Data is only useful if one can do something with it; Kalkitech has leveraged its expertise in protocol translation and data concentration to develop an IoT platform, kalki.io, optimized specifically for the energy market.

Kalki.io collects utility asset data and offers core device management services like configuration, software updates, access control, alerts, and health monitoring. It simplifies the addition of third party and customized applications for secure data access from advanced analytical applications, predictive equipment maintenance, and management of distributed energy power sources.

The Zenith of Innovation The latest innovation from Kalkitech is a solution to help utilities and industries of all sizes manage the

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Limejump: Connecting Energy Trade with Big Data

S

mart grid technology is emerging as the most exciting new dimension in the power industry. Businesses are switching to innovative smart grid tech solutions because it allows utilities to better control supply, which means businesses can manage their energy use more efficiently, leading to potential savings. The smart grid market anticipates rapid growth in the near future because the worldwide demand for energy from sustainable and distributed resources is increasing. Even power grid modernization processes are benefiting from smart grid tech solutions through reduced transmission and distribution losses.

This growing demand has created an excellent opportunity for Limejump to lead the market.

An award-winning energy tech company, Limejump has brought a revolutionary new mindset to the energy market. It connects power trading and data abilities with customers that are generating and managing energy assets in energy markets to optimize value throughout the power ecosystem. Limejump manages the largest portfolio of batteries in the United Kingdom and

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is demonstrating that the virtual power plant is the future of energy.

Redefining the Grid and Management Landscape Limejump offers a complete asset maximization package that provides disparate energy sources with a route to trading markets. Through big data and innovation, they have created new ways to make it simple to earn revenue while maximizing flexibility.

Limejump also offers market auction management in the Capacity Market and is exploring other niche market opportunities in the UK. From Challenges to Success Limejump was founded in 2013 and it has seen very fast expansion from an initial team of 4 to 50 people today.

Creating a new business model in the face of 80 years of established competitions were a key challenge but Limejump has established its presence as one of the largest ‘new’ energy tech energy companies. It has faced the UK energy industry’s unique set of regulatory issues and red tape.

Moreover, the industry has a

reputation for not always having its customers’ best interests at heart, and Limejump had to contend with inherent industry distrust as well.

Overcoming these challenges, Limejump has been at the forefront of battery technology in the UK since 2016. In addition to this, it is the only UK Company named in Bloomberg’s 2018 New Energy Pioneer Top 10 list.

A Dynamic Leader Erik Nygard and Ning Zang are the Co-founders of Limejump. Erik is the company’s CEO. Erik completed his B.Sc. in Finance from the University of San Francisco and his M.Sc. in Energy, Trade & Finance from Cass School in London.

Prior to Limejump, Eric worked for Centrica and British Gas. While working at Centrica, it became clear to him that people didn’t have options they would have liked to be more proactive in electricity management.

This realization that there was a definite opportunity to provide a better product for customers was the first step that led to the founding of Limejump.

June 2018

“

The future of energy.

“ Erik Nygard CEO

Erik has led the development of the Limejump Virtual Power Plant concept to create the Future of Energy.

inflexible, polluting infrastructure.

However, Limejump focuses on distributed assets with an emphasis on sustainable energy generation.

Customer-Oriented Approach

It employs the latest technology like machine learning, big data analysis, neural network processing and engineering connectivity. This is complemented by a core team of expert analysts, traders and technologists.

Limejump has a dedicated account management team that customers can contact via phone, email and live chat for general queries, billing questions, and trading advice. A daily market alert is delivered to all customers with the latest trading, pricing, and market analyses.

The bespoke Limejump customer portal provides every client with direct control over their assets and the ability to inform the Limejump trading desk of outages or maintenance requests. It has developed an internal customer satisfaction team that monitors customer feedback, provides insights into customer concerns, and works to develop customer-centric programs to improve customer relations and retention.

Limejump is able to utilize these resources to connect assets that would normally not have an obvious route to the UK energy grid. Combining these assets to trade in the UK National grid encourages new investment in sustainable energy generation while identifying potential revenue opportunities accessible through tech connectivity.

Limejump is driven by data, engineered by technology, and powered by a team of committed experts. It demonstrates every day that it truly is the future of energy.

The company combines the best in human trading ability with billing transparency and excellent customer service to provide optimum benefit to its customers.

Encouraging Industry Change

The Future of Energy

The UK energy market has been dominated by six legacy energy providers reliant on old carbon-heavy,

Limejump is committed to transforming sustainable resources into revenue channels for its

June 2018

customers. Through this structure, it leads the technological evolution of the industry to reduce pollutants and unsustainable business models with sustainable resources and encourages renewable generation investment.

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Editor’s Choice

The Universality of IoT Technology T

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he gratifying tool for companies to lead ahead IoT Technology” The Internet of things (IoT) is a revolutionary change for many sectors like manufacturing, agriculture, retail, electronic, energy and healthcare which are progressing towards the IoT phenomenon to connect digitally. It has placed an opportunity to build unusual results which increases a company’s compatibility. Enterprises seeking development are focusing on the use of real-time data management and IoT analysis. Many of the companies are adopting this technology to heighten their power of consumption. Companies are mainly concentrating on IoT application from “sensing” instead of “doing” to grow its competitive advantages. This element empowers organizations by allowing them to take the IoT advantage and adopt a more ‘innovative connected approach’.

Infrastructure Management – Optimization of Technology New applications are now enhancing their level of consumption. Likewise, manufacturing sector is also

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June 2018

getting engrossed and achieving excellence through IoT Techniques. Applications are liable for monitoring and controlling operations for urban and rural manufactures like bridges, farms, and railway tracks. It is the key features of the applications were IoT infrastructure is also used for monitoring the construction safety and risk management system and operations. This major feature represents the mechanism of IoT application which works under infrastructure management. Benefits of IoT Technology are cost reducing, time reducing, better in quality, and increase productivity. It helps to make fast decisions and save money with real-time analysis. IoT devices help to give prominent results by monitoring and controlling operations used in all infrastructure related area.

Manufacturing Techniques are Growing with IoT Technology In the manufacturing sector, networking and controlling have been used with IoT devices. It provides information about data and operation stability. Network status and the information is collected in the system by tracking IoT device. Manufacturing control process deliver information about industry application and smart manufacturing details receiving form IoT device. IoT intelligent system enables sharing information about product demands, service management, supply chain networks, sensors and control systems together. Small industries can also be integrated with IoT technology that enables real-time optimization, measurements, production compatibility and safety management.

However, intelligent systems are determined as the significant technique that implies user experience and system security which ultimately saves costs.

which land is fertile or which one is dry and predict future fields.

IoT Technology Helps to Optimize Energy Consumption Integrated Sensing and Control system helps to optimize energy consumption. IoT devices are integrated with energy consumption systems in order to maintain balance between power generation and energy usage. IoT devices offer the opportunity to remotely gather information. It enables advance functions like remote controlling and changing light conditions. IoT Technology work for home-based energy system which provide power related information, energy consumption and energy usage at homes. IoT devices set goals to improve efficiency, reliability and sustainability of the energy system.

Monitoring Environment through IoT Technology Environment monitoring application has been involved with sensors to assist information about environment changes by identifying water quantity, atmosphere, air pressure etc. It also has focus on monitoring movements of wildlife and their habitats. Devices connected to the internet also provide statistics about earthquake or tsunami - early warning systems, and also used as an emergency system. IoT device application is used to collect geographic information and majorly instructive information. This device also uses standardized approach to bring wireless sensing technique and gather finest information.

IoT Technology Helps to Sustain Building and Home Automation

IoT Technology brings Innovative Farming Methods The Agriculture sector is one of the industry to implement IoT technology for stability and better performance. IoT technology has become a significant method of farming. It also offers durability and functionality to the whole process. The combination of wireless sensors with agricultural apps and cloud platforms benefits in gathering definite information relating to environmental conditions like, rainfall, temperature, humidity, wind speed etc. Farmers are getting competent results out of it, and are able to find real-time information easily. Linked with farmland, it improves and automates farming techniques like weather information, taking decision on quality and quantity, and minimizes risk and waste. With IoT Tech farmers can find out detailed information of farm and similarly know

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With certainty, IoT devices are used to monitor and control the mechanical, electrical and electronic systems.

IoT devices are used in various types of home automation and building automation systems. Control and sensory applications offer unified information. The integration of the internet with building creates an energy management system which will allow prominent energy efficiency.

There have been many ways for IoT technology to expand compatibility in the digital world, and it will be implemented in each sector to work as an important tool, to enhance its affinity. After all, the IoT network makes technology more unified and satisfying, with its tools and applications and IoT will be a step ahead towards numerous opportunities.

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OhmConnect: Connecting Smart Energy Grids with Homes

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he average annual electricity consumption for a U.S. residential customer in 2016 was 10,766 kilowatt-hours (kWh), an average of 897 kWh per month. This gigantic consumption of energy leads to the construction of more energy grids which, in turn, lead to increased carbon emissions. OhmConnect lends a helping hand by encouraging control of this consumption.

OhmConnect is a software-based power plant located in San Francisco, California. It pays households to reduce their energy use when the electric grid is stressed and when power has to be supplied from expensive and pollution-heavy sources.

The company’s state-of-the-art software product coordinates energy sharing events with residential utility customers, allowing users to respond to #OhmHours. The software achieves this by making behavioral changes like turning off lights and other automated actions through smart devices connected to the OhmConnect platform.

Crafting Smart Energy Usage OhmConnect envisions a world where customers’ homes are

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connected directly to the electricity grid, and this inspires its mission statement: automagically creating the smart energy future.

Using OhmConnect, smart home devices communicate with each other and with the grid to save energy, making smart decisions to unlock the full value of customers’ energy usage. Energy sharing is a way for grid operators to balance supply and demand by allowing customers to shift their energy usage in response to real-time peak events.

When demand exceeds the forecasted supply of energy, customers are prompted to respond in real-time through smart home networks to save energy. One way is by waiting to perform energy-intensive activities until after that peak event.

The Leader’s Part in Progress Matt Duesterberg is the CEO and Co-founder of OhmConnect. Matt has focused his efforts on sharing the myriad benefits of OhmConnect with the energy world, in building its data infrastructure, and growing the platform’s user base.

He started his career in the energy industry trading electricity flow futures for a small quantitative

trading firm, DC Energy. With his experience, Matt realized that there was a fundamental need within the energy industry to bring expertise from outside the energy sector to solve problems common in other industries, including in consumer engagement, marketing, and software services.

When he started OhmConnect in 2014, no pathway existed to pay users for reducing electricity usage, but that concept was incredibly valuable to the grid. Matt and the OhmConnect team helped to lay the groundwork through which they pay customers in San Francisco, California and Ontario, Canada.

Confronting the Challenges One of OhmConnect’s biggest challenges is to ensure that there is a regulatory environment that can reflect what the grid needs. To overcome this hurdle, the organization relies on three primary regulations to facilitate its business model: access to data from smart meters (with customer consent), payment of megawatts on the energy grid, and a competitive approach to electricity products.

OhmConnect has and will continue to face opposition from existing policies that unintentionally prevent it from participating in the market for a variety of reasons. The organization has faced this previously in 2016 and has utilized its user base as a political advantage that helped in relieving that risk.

OhmConnect continues to grow its policy and regulatory team that helps shape these policies to enable a smarter energy future. Its journey has

June 2018

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OhmConnect is a free service that rewards you for saving energy at specic times.

Matt Duesterberg CEO & Co-founder

been enlightening as forerunners have created and modified policies that enable OhmConnect to exist.

consciously consider how they consume energy, both as individuals and within the larger community.

Ensuring Optimal Efficiency

When more energy is needed than was initially planned for, OhmConnect users are called in the place of peaker plants to meet this unexpected demand. Instead of keeping lights switched on or air conditioning units running, users share their energy with those in the community who are using more than expected.

OhmConnect focuses on customer satisfaction and building a product that encourages ongoing participation, high referral rates, and the highest Net Promoter Score (NPS). The product has evolved into one that serves users in a personalized manner; it identifies which areas of the experience will resonate with an individual and draws their attention to those feature sets.

OhmConnect executes this primarily by analyzing a user’s baseline energy consumption and categorizing users by behavioral profiles, which is a key indicator of the programs they might enjoy most. This also allows users to respond and participate in #OhmHours in the most efficient manner by setting their desired hours, frequency, and the rewards that they receive.

Users are then paid for reducing the amount of energy they are pulling from the grid. OhmConnect therefore acts as a residential energy-sharing program, leveraging demand response, and has proven that residential homes will respond both frequently and consistently when called, if provided with the right incentive.

Contributions to a Cause

OhmConnect allows users to respond to #OhmHours by making behavioral changes like switching off devices, as well as taking automated actions by connecting their smart devices to the OhmConnect platform.

As an energy-sharing service, OhmConnect encourages users to

The company’s mission statement, ‘Automagically creating the smart

June 2018

energy future’, encapsulates its goals for a smart, connected world, bridging the gap between the smart home and the smart grid. Using OhmConnect, devices automatically communicate with each other and with the grid to save energy, and make smart decisions to unlock the value of citizens’ energy usage.

Expansion of Empowerment Over the past few years, OhmConnect has been focusing intently on expanding its footprint within California. In the next few years, the company envisions enormous opportunities in new energy markets, including Toronto, Texas, New York, the eastern seaboard, and the Midwest.

Each region has its own unique energy market and the company is keen to empower every energy customer to get paid for making smarter energy decisions.

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Power Ledger: Transforming the World by Trading Renewable Energy

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he idea of ‘trading’ renewable energy has created an additional factor other than conservation of environment, which instigates consumers to voluntarily use renewable energy. A recognized platform that has enabled consumers to conduct direct trade of renewable energy is Power Ledger.

The software platform uses blockchain technology to enable consumers to buy and sell renewable energy directly between one another, which is referred to as ‘peer-to-peer trading’. The platform was created to link the consumers’ solar panels in a marketplace so that renewable energy can be low-cost, low-carbon and owned and sold by individuals and communities all over the world.

Through Power Ledger, individuals can be enabled to maximize the return on their renewable energy and also to enable those who wouldn’t have access otherwise, to buy renewable energy at more affordable prices.

Ultimately, this technology aims to remove the reliance on central power stations and prevent developing nations from having to invest in expensive infrastructure.

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An Empowering Platform Since the electricity power industry was modeled only for central players to feed the energy supply, consumers producing energy don’t get fair value for their investment. The Power Ledger platform allows consumers to receive the benefits of these investments, either by selling their excess energy through the Peer-toPeer Trading Application or by contributing to Asset Germination Events. By using POWR tokens, consumers are able to help fund large renewable energy assets such as a battery or solar farms, and make a passive income off those investments using this platform.

The platform can also be used to support Microgrids, with the best known live example being its partnership with Tech Mahindra in India. Power Ledger is being used across Tech Mahindra campuses in India where consumer data is being used to prove the accuracy and security of the trading platform. This platform enables village-to-village trading through which communities can break their dependence on single grids and trade energy in a peer-topeer fashion.

The Leaders of Transformation Power Ledger has a total of five Cofounders, namely Dr. Jemma Green, Dave Martin, Jenni Conroy, John Bulich and Gov van Ek. Prior to founding Power Ledger, the Co-founder and Chair Dr. Jemma Green worked as an investment banker at JP Morgan in London.

During her time in London she studied Sustainability Leadership at Cambridge University. She’s currently a research fellow at Curtin University Sustainability Policy (CUSP) Institute. Jemma has experienced the challenges of sustainable cities through her role as an independent Councilor of the City of Perth and, most recently, as Acting Deputy Lord Mayor of Perth. She’s also the Chair of Climate-KIC, Australia.

The Managing Director of the company, Dave Martin, has over 20 years of experience working in the energy industry, and co-founder Jenni Conroy has a cumulative experience of over 30 years in the industry. The other two co-founders John Bulich and Gov van Ek were the co-founders of an Australian blockchain company specializing in the creation and commercialization of technical and commercial blockchain systems called Ledger Assets.

An Edifying Journey Being a startup, the entire team at Power Ledger was wearing multiple hats so that they could constantly manage how to best spend time answering community questions about its ICO, while ensuring it doesn’t diverge too far from its longterm goals. The progress it has made

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We put the power to manage the energy economy into the hands of consumers, while maintaining the value of existing distribution networks.

Dr. Jemma Green Co-founder & Chairman

comes down to the solid legal framework it has established for the POWR token.

personally answer questions via Facebook, Messenger, Reddit, Twitter, email and more.

As a company, Power Ledger doesn’t believe one can build credibility if they bypass regulatory environments and expose stakeholders to potential risks and liabilities. This is one of the keystones of the company’s business and its global partners see this strategy as a significant benefit.

Aiding in the Development As solar panels become more widespread, more and more households are becoming energy self-sufficient. But people who can’t afford to install their own solar PV or battery are left footing higher bills, which is not sustainable. Power Ledger platform helps people who can’t afford to participate in the distributed energy economy and who deserve the same access to low cost, low carbon energy as the rest of the population. Power Ledger, is in a position where its technology is sought after by companies from around the globe.

Delivering Innovation Round-theClock For Power Ledger’s project partners, it has a system in place to qualify leads and provide information about how to be involved in an available Power Ledger project. The company also has a business development team and a team of analysts who work to understand the needs of each potential customer and it tweaks and develops the platform to suit their specific needs.

For its community, the company has a team of moderators who answer questions 24/7 in Telegram chat which has 17,000 active users. The team members are always online to

June 2018

“Circumstance has pushed us to innovate to a point where we’re leading the way in this industry,” asserts Dr. Jemma Green.

Germination Events present enormous potential for developing countries and also countries impacted by natural disasters to assist in rebuilding assets. Another entity the company has been working on is an electric vehicle charging platform.

A recent GTM Research report on blockchain in the energy sector independently researched Power Ledger as well as others and ranked them by means of projects deployed or planned. The company is leading the pack with its peer-to-peer energy trading, electric vehicle charging and transactive energy solutions. Over the next 18 months Power Ledger aims to have the platform being used in 12 jurisdictions and trading 100s of Mega Watts.

Paving the Path towards a Renewable Future Power Ledger’s focus for 2018 is on Asset Germination Events and outreach from the community to participate in energy generation. Asset

31

Tech Perspective

Rising Mobile Workforce and its

Challenges in the

Mobile-Cloud Era: Data & Endpoint Management

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obility and cloud computing are rapidly becoming the norm for enterprises around the world. In turn, enterprise IT departments are facing new management and security challenges as the amount of business data soars and the number of endpoints explodes. The question that is doing the rounds is what IT teams need to consider to manage and secure their businesses in this new era.

Mathivanan V Vice President ManageEngine

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Industry analysts predict deep penetration of enterprise mobility by the year 2020.

IDC, for instance, forecasts June 2018

that mobile workers will account for almost 75 percent of the total workforce in the U.S. Meanwhile, Strategy Analytics projects that the global mobile workforce will reach 1.75 billion users and account for 42 percent of the global workforce overall.

The economic perspective is just as bright as a button. The global enterprise mobility market will be worth as much as $140 billion, predicts the National Association of Software and Services Companies.

And the investments are paying off.

To date, 84 percent of all companies who consider themselves on the cutting edge of mobility report an increase in overall productivity as a direct result of incorporating mobile apps into their business, according to a survey by AppsFreedom.

More troubling, the typical end user has little knowledge of those threats or their ramifications. The result is more users are more likely to leak enterprise data by using compromised websites and rogue online services. The CVE listed 14,712 cybersecurity vulnerabilities for 2017 and has already listed 2,848 for the first two months of 2018. In response, vendors large and small are releasing patches on a daily basis.

Enterprise IT teams clearly need to focus on endpoint security management to ensure business success in the mobile-cloud era.

Endpoint security challenges

Likewise, enterprises are expected to continue relentlessly adopting cloud technologies. By 2020, Gartner forecasts the public cloud services market will reach $383 billion. This includes spending on cloud business process services, cloud application infrastructure services, cloud application services, cloud management and security services, cloud system infrastructure services, and of course, cloud advertising.

Keeping endpoints up to date with the latest versions of their OSes and applications has become a full-time job, one that is getting harder to perform in the mobile enterprise. A growing challenge is the diversity of endpoint operating systems that must be managed, including Android, iOS, MacOS, Windows, Linux, and Chrome OS. For each, the IT team must learn that OS along with its corresponding patching technique.

Likewise, applications acquired from the various app stores are managed with different techniques that must be learned and mastered so that the team can secure the endpoints.

The flip side of increasing enterprise mobility and cloud usage is the increasing risk to enterprise security.

Today, most users have at least two endpoints – a laptop and mobile device – and 80 percent of network devices are be endpoints that are constantly connected to the internet and exposed to its threats such as Meltdown, Spectre, Wannacry, and Petya.

Another challenge is managing the endpoints from day one, especially mobile devices. While it’s been relatively easy for IT admins to install agent software on desktops and laptops, smart phones and other mobile devices make life harder for the admins because the devices are rarely if ever connected to the corporate network. Consequently, devices must be provisioned with the

June 2018

necessary mobile device management software before they are given to end users. Devices that are not appropriately managed are security risks, so no business application should be installed or run on them.

Related to the day-one management challenge is updating endpoints that are on the go, anytime and anywhere.

IT teams must be able to install critical patches while employees are traveling, commuting, or otherwise offsite.

Data leakage presents yet another security challenge for IT teams to overcome. Data leakage can happen with or without the users’ knowledge.

For instance, users may knowingly copy business data to a USB device or upload it to a cloud storage service. They may also unknowingly expose that data to a public cloud service when using third-party apps such as document viewers and predictive keyboard apps. Such apps may compromise user IDs and passwords, account numbers, and other sensitive enterprise data by exposing it to public cloud services.

When a user’s device is lost or stolen, the IT team must be able to track and recover the device or wipe the data if the device isn’t recovered.

To maintain the user’s privacy, however, the IT team can not continuously track the location of the user’s device.

BYOD presents another privacy vs security challenge: When users use their own devices for business purposes, privacy needs to be maintained. Photos, contacts, and other personal data should not be

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Tech Perspective managed by company’s mobile device management app.

On the other hand, security needs to be maintained, too.

To that end, the IT team should create a container on the user’s personal device – a secure, managed area that isolates business email, CRM, and other enterprise apps and data from the rest of user’s personal apps/data.

To establish strong endpoint security and prevent unwanted attacks, IT teams must apply strict security policies on their endpoints. Laptops, for instance, should always run a firewall, prevent the creation of unwanted network shares, and encrypt data via BitLocker or FileVault. Such security policies can protect enterprises from the security risks posed by mobility.

Predicting the development of data and endpoint management Going forward, machine learning and AI will help make data and endpoint management a proactive, rather than a reactive process. For instance, these technologies could prevent data theft by detecting anomalies such as unusual login activities or an unusually large number of documents being uploaded to the cloud. They could analyze the root cause of patch deployment failures and suggest fixes. They could also detect system idle times – during lunch hours, for instance – to deploy patches as

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soon as possible rather wait until after hours or weekends, which can leave systems unnecessarily vulnerable.

Meanwhile, the internet of things (IoT) will introduce many organizations to a new breed of endpoints and connected devices. Unlike their iOS- and Androidpowered predecessors, IoT devices will be running many different OSes and applications, all of which may be vulnerable yet must be managed and secured.

Finally, most business applications are moving to the cloud and accessed via browser, effectively making the browser an endpoint. That means to defend against attacks, IT teams need to manage browsers and perform all security operations for them just as if they were desktops, laptops, or any other device.

As organizations continue to adopt mobility and the cloud, they must also adopt the practices necessary to support this new reality. Data and endpoint security and management are priority one in IT departments. For the vast majority of companies around the world, their future success depends on recognizing and committing to that priority.

June 2018

SmartWorks: Unleashing the Power of your Data

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he world’s rapidly growing appetite for energy and water resources has left existing utility infrastructure inefficient, increasingly unreliable and costly to maintain. As demand for these commodities grow, the utility industry has seen enormous advances in smart infrastructure and associated technologies. As these technologies evolve, utilities are challenged to determine how to make best use of their associated data, introducing a mounting need for smart infrastructure solutions.

SmartWorks, a division of N. Harris Computer Corporation, is filling the void left by traditional solutions.

SmartWorks offers turnkey solutions that allow utilities to navigate change by unleashing the power of their smart infrastructure and the associated data.

utility’s operational data. These datafocused solutions help streamline utility processes across a range of environments. SmartWorks’ solutions are simple to deploy, easy to operate, and painless to upgrade.

As a result, utility providers get a cost-effective way to maximize the return on their smart infrastructure investments.

Making the Complex Simple SmartWorks has over a decade of experience providing best-in-class data management and analytics solutions to more than 300 utilities throughout North America and the Caribbean.

MeterSense, a scalable and configurable meter data management solution. Ÿ HomeConnect, a sophisticated web-based customer engagement solution. Ÿ BizConnect, an online portal for Commercial & Industrial energy and water users. Ÿ SmartWorks VODA, designed to

SmartWorks provides powerful, feature-rich solutions that analyze a

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The SmartWorks portfolio is designed to make the complex simple. SmartWorks’ robust utility decision management solution, SmartWorks Compass, seamlessly converts volumes of data from disparate sources within the utility into powerful insights and automated actions.

SmartWorks’ broad range of solutions also includes: Ÿ

assist water utilities with water conservation metrics, meter data management, leak detection, and lost revenue.

Driving Innovation Shifting regulatory requirements, fluctuating demand and dwindling natural resources exert extraordinary pressure on electric, water, and gas utilities. To cope with these dynamic changes, utilities are heavily investing in intelligent technology, infrastructure upgrades, renewable energies, consumer engagement tools, and social media applications.

However, utilities are unique, meaning one single solution does not fit all needs.

SmartWorks helps utilities to adapt to new technologies quickly and effectively. SmartWorks develops easy-to-use solutions based on the needs of customers within the utility market. Through their interaction with Customers, SmartWorks has come to understand that the smart grid is not only about smart meters, it involves the integration of all existing systems and connected devices including Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) and sensors in the June 2018

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SmartWorks provides data management and analytics solutions that make the complex simple.

Brad Atchison

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Senior Executive Vice President

emerging Internet of Things (IoT).

The insights collected from the combination of existing systems, smart infrastructure and IoT sensors allow the utility to serve its consumers better. SmartWorks acts as bridge between engineers, software experts, and product specialists to innovate and extract new applications for their utility data.

A Brilliant Mind Brad Atchison, Senior Executive Vice President of SmartWorks, is the strategic leader responsible for overseeing SmartWorks’ Product Development, Business Development, Professional Services and Support teams.

Brad has over 20 years of experience in the utility sector and is intimately familiar with all realms of the utility industry. Brad began his experience working in the utility industry at BC Hydro, serving as a Financial Analyst with the Corporate Finance group and later as the Manager of Market Information & Analysis in the industry leading Power Smart business unit. Brad then worked in the Harris Utilities Group as a Senior Application Consultant and later as Director of Development Services.

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Brad’s tenure has given him an intimate knowledge of smart grid technologies and strong familiarity with data analytics.

Brad ensures that SmartWorks is focused on the delivery of superior business solutions that meet the evolving needs of utility providers and leverage the tremendous opportunities that exist within the space. Brad strives to understand the true challenges of the utility industry and develop solutions on which utilities can rely to overcome business and operational changes.

Brad is also the driving force behind SmartWorks’ Business Development initiatives. He was a key player in the company’s acquisition of DataVoice International Inc. and Partner Software. Brad is currently concentrating on creating and introducing new integrations that correlate across multiple systems to transform the way the world relates to energy and water.

Future Insights SmartWorks has joined forces with Partner Software and dataVoice International Inc. to collectively offer a comprehensive suite of utility solutions in the areas of data

analysis, data management, interactive voice response, outage management, and field services. Together, these three highly compatible organizations will expand their integrations into multiple new product lines, bringing integration to a new level to offer superior products across the board. SmartWorks is focused on developing agnostic solutions that tie together multiple utility systems to streamline utility processes and convert volumes of data into powerful insights.

The company is aiming to maintain its prime focus on the cooperative and municipal utility space.

SmartWorks focuses on data in both energy and water conservation management, as the benefits in this area have the potential to change the way people everywhere use the world’s finite resources of energy and water.

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E-Mobility

E-Mobility: Pioneering Transportation with

Smart Grid

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he electric automobile is associated with the integration of transportation, which is resulted according to the customer needs. Customer demands are initiated towards renewable energies in terms of a zero-emission and sustainable mobility. The "Smart Grid" could be a hypothetic methodology with electrically collected from vehicles that run on renewable resources.

However, E-mobility consequently specializing in customer demands and build an effective source of energy through mobility.

Rendering ahead with Smart Grid The move towards a low-carbon society would require progress in renewable energy production and in e-mobility.

The success of e-mobility is connected to smart grid development that helps intelligent charging infrastructure for big scale acceptance of electric vehicles. The dependency works both ways in which comparable to massive scale acceptance of e-mobility helps massive scale infrastructure investments to be profitable.

Functionalities of E-Mobility

Electro mobility or E-mobility suggests clean and environment-friendly transport through electric vehicles. It conjointly delivers climate-friendly technology with massive growth potential. In the automotive industry, electricity suppliers and government influencers are also pushing e-mobility within the field of standardization. For sequencing to the perfection, utilities and network operators are heavily investing under development of ‘intelligent’ electricity distribution systems.

Smart Grid Communication for economical E-Mobility In smart grid, smart energy network depends upon comprehensive communication with integrated charging stations. The communication with the smart grid is incessantly measured and controlled through an IP-based connection. It additionally permits load compensation with the assistance of interconnecting charging stations.

Additionally, vehicle-to-grid communication makes it potential to integrate special charge models and supply new services. Moreover, in future the vehicles connected to the smart grid unit expected to perform batteries for storing extra energy as needed.

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There are two different kinds of plug-in electric vehicles, such as plug-in hybrid vehicle and pure electric vehicle.

Were plug-in hybrid vehicles are equipped with a combustion engine and pure electric vehicle encompass pure electric connectivity. The proper electricity-production drastically reduces CO2 emissions compared to traditional combustion engine cars. From the perspective of the electrical grid, people’s habits and daily schedules can probably cause peak demand at certain times of day, which may cause electricity network congestion or voltages below normal.

Revolutionary Trends of Electrical Grid In an electrical grid, the energy system becomes progressively relied on renewable energy sources. The wants to the electrical grid are ever-changing with latest trends. The alternative energy is generally non-controllable, suburbanized and unsteady. E-mobility brings purposeful technology which reinforces the transportation medium and efficient method.

June 2018

Flexible property of E-Mobility E-mobility may be a versatile electrical transportation medium immensely capturing client demands. The flexibility of e-mobility helps to reduce costs of network investments and electricity bills with grid operators. The network has the flexibility to deal with worst case situation.

It additionally reduces energy and absorbs excessive energy generation, and additionally things and voltage issues.

Nissan Integrates E-Mobility with Smart Grid The well-known automobile brand, Nissan is introducing its own electronic vehicle or e-mobility vehicle with smart grid technology. Nissan additionally proposes to introduce technology and business ties between electric driving and smart grid. Moreover, Nissan is on the point of introducing energy storage for a vehicle for domestic usage supported second-life batteries. Nissan’s is aiming to provide concerning one hundred electric vehicle charging stations for each non-public and business purpose. The automotive

June 2018

users are ready to offer the battery capacity to vehicles and to create energy for grid. Hence, Nissan drives its e-mobility vehicles effectively with unified consumer experience.

Confronting Future with E-Mobility The future of electric vehicles is remodeling within the field of energy and quality happening in the fields of energy and quality. E-mobility is influenced by market factors and forthcoming trends that are nearly unbeatable. The conjunction of e-mobility and smart grid is a chance for many automobile industries. Through automobile, businesses have many possibilities to head in the market.

Henceforth, e-mobility delivers significant solutions to automobile industry comprises with a smart grid. It’s a revolutionary step towards automobile segmentation comprises with electric transport mobility solutions.

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Sympower: Creating Grid Sustainability through Demand Management

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limate change is one of the biggest challenges we face as a planet today, and fossilfueled power plants are a major source of that problem.

Electricity supply and demand must be balanced at all times to prevent issues on the electricity grid. Demand fluctuates due to day-to-day consumption patterns. The increase in renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power are contributing to fluctuations in supply, as the production of energy depends on variable natural factors that are hard to control.

Currently, discrepancies between supply and demand are restored by power plants in an inefficient and polluting manner by quickly increasing generation to match the demand.

Solutions such as Sympower speed up the transition to a clean and efficient energy system. It minimizes the need

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for heavily-polluting “peaking” plants and facilitates the integration of renewables onto the electricity grid, reducing the carbon footprint of the energy system as a whole. Sympower enables smarter energy use for a lowcarbon future.

Being Part of the Solution Sympower enables electricity endusers to make a significant contribution towards building a clean energy system by optimizing their energy consumption. The Sympower system operates as a Virtual Power Plant, matching demand to the supply without the need for increased generation of power. Its smart software connects appliances such as

electric heating and cooling systems to an online platform that balances the supply and demand of electricity in real-time. Online systems monitor physical processes on site and adjust consumption and production of the connected appliances while minimizing the disturbance caused to the processes, making the end-user’s industrial, commercial and residential systems a part of the solution.

Transmission System Operators and Distribution System Operators purchase balancing services and congestion management solutions from Sympower. These grid operators have highly technical demands and qualification requirements that Sympower is able to fulfill across multiple markets and geographies.

Sympower shares revenues generated from the balancing services with the appliance owners, paying them for the capacity they have contributed to the platform and for their role in creating a cleaner and more sustainable energy system.

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You can now contribute to balancing the electricity grid sustainably through our automated software system. Turn electricity consuming appliances into value generating energy assets and support the transition to a cleaner and more sustainable energy system.

Simon Bushell CEO & Founder

Connecting Energy System with IoT Sympower’s Internet of Energy Things solution regulates the behavior of devices that consume electricity in real-time from a cloud, synchronizing the energy consumption with the supply and demand on the grid in realtime. Additionally, Sympower enables customers to become active traders on electricity markets and optimizes consumption against electricity prices in new ways providing end-users with additional sources of revenue and lower electricity bills.

Every day, the Sympower platform gets smarter by optimizing forecasting algorithms, reviewing energy consumption trends and optimizing how it trades resources.

Initial Setbacks and a Better Future Sympower’s main challenges along the path to growth are the restrictions that come from regulatory barriers.

The lack of current market structures that are open to demand response aggregation and the time it takes

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institutions to adapt to advancements in aggregator functions, make it difficult for Sympower to enter into new countries rapidly.

Much needed change is on the horizon however, as European legislation is mandating that countries open their electricity markets to sustainable solutions such as demand response aggregation and frequency reserves by 2020. Sympower is part of the Horizon 2020 R&D initiative Interflex, that explores pathways to adapt and modernize the European electricity distribution system, giving Sympower a head start as part of the change makers in the industry.

The Passionate Leader Simon Bushell is CEO and Founder of Amsterdam-based Demand Response Aggregator, Sympower. He is passionate about finding innovative solutions to help tackle climate change. Simon is a Forbes 30 under 30 Social Entrepreneur and has been invited to speak at events all over the world to share his vision on the future of the energy system.

With such transformational regulatory changes buoying the industry, and many other R&D projects Sympower is involved in, the company will continue to grow its portfolio of services and already has plans to expand into new markets in Europe, North America, and the Middle East.

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ZOME Energy Networks: A Smarter Way to Optimize Distributed Energy Resources

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OME Energy Networks, Inc.was selected as a Top 10, Best in Class vendor because of its advanced Distributed Energy Resource Optimization software and the team behind their solution. The company offers a wide-scale, deviceindependent, platform solution that includes cloud software, algorithms, and API’s enabling control, simulations, and analytics to improve electric utility and building-wide energy management programs.

ZOME’s platform is built on AWS, designed as a “micro service” architecture, and supports IoT and other energy-consuming devices.

ZOME, and its intellectual property of ColorPower Algorithms, automates the management and optimization (including helping third-party DERMS — Distributed Energy Resources Management System– players). The modular architecture is provided as a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) basis, to be white-labeled for utilities, aggregators, or other partners.

Meanwhile, ZOME’s HVAC Analytics allows for analytics-based optimization of currently running DR programs based on connected thermostats. This predictive

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capability—what is the energy load behind that thermostat?—allows utilities or their DERMS vendors to notably improve the accuracy of these HVAC demand side management programs, and can make this aggregate energy load dispatchable and more viable for core utility operations.

The company’s underlying ColorPower algorithms incorporate the management of the full suite of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs), including Energy Efficiency (EE), Demand Response (DR), Distributed Generation (DG), Distributed Storage (DS) and Vehicle to Grid (V2G). The company provides a holistic approach to ‘supply-demand optimization,’ while meeting the needs of energy providers, endconsumers of energy services, and regulators.

It’s not just the products, but also the team at ZOME that makes this company noteworthy: Dr. Alex Papalexopoulos is the CEO and Chairman of ZOME Energy Networks. Dr. Papalexopoulos is also the Founder of ECCO, one of the top energy market designers in the world.

ZOME is his product company, ECCO his consulting company. He is

also an IEEE Fellow, and has codeveloped much of the ISO market system in the USA, and has designed energy markets on four continents.

It’s not an exaggeration to say he is a living legend in the energy sector.

Brad Kayton is the Co-founder and COO. Mr. Kayton co-founded what was at the time the largest broadband equipment company for North America (2Wire), and a leading home and energy automation vendor (4Home) which was acquired by Motorola and then Google. Mr. Kayton has 10 patents to his name, all in the areas of networking and energy management and he is on the board of a few leading IoT related companies.

Igor Chernyy is the CTO, with a background of having worked at both Amazon.com and Microsoft developing cloud products, he is in charge of ZOME’s cloud architecture and development. Eric Smith is the SVP of Sales & BusDev, and he has over 30 years working in the energy sector, most recently as Managing Director of Navigant Consulting.

Delivering Energy Cloud Services ZOME Energy Networks provides three primary services for energy optimization: ColorPower for MDUsTM, ColorPower for NeighborhoodsTM, and ZOME AnalyticsTM. ColorPower for MDUs allows building owners to enjoy energy savings and even revenue generation from their buildings in certain areas by coordinating the energy usage with the rest of the Energy Grid, helping the Grid in times of need and getting paid for it. Consumers living in the apartment units can share in the savings or revenue generation and take pride in being “green,” all the

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“

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We provide the best SupplyDemand Optimization of Distributed Energy Resources by enlisting IoT devices.

Dr. Alex Papalexopoulos CEO & Chairman

while maintaining control by being able to opt out at any time.

ColorPower for Neighborhoods provides energy management and optimization for electric utilities and its customers living in primarily single-family home neighborhoods.

ColorPower for Neighborhoods enables electric utilities to optimize Demand Response (DR) and other demand side management (DSM) programs in operation as well as new rollouts, including the wider objectives of Distributed Energy Resource applications. Consumers are motivated to enroll in ColorPowerenabled programs to save money on energy use, to earn credits to their monthly energy bill, earn Tokens, or receive checks in the mail for their flexible energy contribution.

ZOME Analytics is a set of cloudbased services that provides a variety of analytics, machine learning, and predictive modules for energy use and management. Companies can tap into ZOME Analytics to better estimate energy loads. APIs allow either DERMS vendors or utilities directly to improve the accuracy in their currently running or planned Distributed Energy Resource program.

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Enhancing Energy Distribution with Notable Benefits: ZOME helps utilities achieve sustainable energy programs, enables apartment owners to “bid” their buildings for DR payments, partners with device vendors, and provides end-consumers an easy way to engage and stay in Demand Side Management (DSM) programs.

Electric Utility benefit: The more responsive the energy grid can be, the better the economics, resource loading, and environmental impact. It is important to understand the value proposition underlying ColorPower. It algorithmically balances energy needs (demand) with energy distribution (supply) to the point of allowing demand needs and preferences to openly trigger energy supply, which in turn would optimize the market price at the LMP, and in the process optimizing the cost and sustainability of energy. It also provides benefits to apartment building owners with demand charge savings, Demand Response (DR) payments, energy usage, time of day automated savings, and overall load balancing of the building(s).

ZOME’s ColorPower DER optimization platform is uniquely

designed in that one part of it is for energy management simulations, while another part is the control loop, both are integrated together, and the Precision Program Iterative Rollout methodology it facilitates is patent protected. Algorithms are the key differentiator for ZOME, and their cloud-API architecture enables broad support for equipment monitoring and control. ZOME’s methodology enables much more precision, and as such can be used for advanced energy ancillary services.

Eye On Expansion The platform is being extended to tiein EVs, roof-top solar, battery storage, and other DERs. The goal at the highest level is to optimize DERs from the demand-side and match as closely as possible to the up and down output of most renewable energy sources. ZOME envisions providing the services beyond North America, with Europe and Canada being the first geographic expansion regions for the company.

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Expert’s Foresight

BEYOND AUTOMATION:

AI powered Autonomous Factories of the Future

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ise of the industrial robots in 1980s led to a major evolution of Henry Ford’s assembly line concept. Routine tasks that were being handled by factory workers started to be performed by robots with greater accuracy and efficiency. With the spread of device-to-device communication and IoT protocols, robots started taking a serious amount of responsibility from factory workers. This movement was initially led by German high tech firms that branded this shift as the 4th industrial revolution. On the opposite side, there was China, taking advantage of their access to low cost human labour as an alternative to automation. Very recently, a few years ago, China flipped their strategy 180 degrees, becoming the biggest advocate of automation by starting to invest aggressively on buying robots and developing their own robotics know-how led by government initiatives. So the technology won. There is no question about the need for automation anymore and major manufacturing companies, including the ones in China, Germany and rest of the world are racing to automate their industrial processes to increase productivity.

Daghan Cam Co-founder & CEO Ai Build

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Everything that can be automated will be automated, according to Zuboff’s law.

However, some things are more difficult to be automated than other things.

Those are non-repetitive tasks which require higher level of cognition and ability to adapt into unknown conditions. These tasks can be defined as the last mile in factory automation. Tesla, the electric car manufacturer, was recently criticized by analysts for automating their assembly line more than necessary. The reason of the criticism was the fact that the cost of automation exceeded the cost of a human led assembly

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line. This may be a valid argument for today but the solution should be found in increasing the bar for commercially viable automation and not by going back to lower levels of automation.

So if we are moving towards full automation and lights-out manufacturing, how can the last mile in factories be automated without overspending and over engineering?

Autonomy seems to be the answer, therefore Artificial Intelligence…

There is a slight but important difference between Automation and Autonomy. Autonomy is the state of being able to make independent decisions in situations that were not experienced before. By definition, autonomous systems are always automated, but the other way around is not always the case. A system may be fully automated but not autonomous.

“Blind Automation” is the term we use for this category.

Systems that are blindly automated are based on hard coded rules, as in expert systems, and they tend to be very difficult to be reconfigured if the conditions or requirements change over time. Autonomous systems, in contrast, generalize the rules for decision making in different scenarios by allowing a higher level of abstraction in their programming.

For example, in the blind automation scenario, a robot may be programmed to go to coordinates x, y, z in order to pick up an object. This will work without problems as long as the object is found precisely at coordinates x, y, z.

However, if for any reason the object is positioned at a slightly different location, the robot will still go to x, y, z, fail to pick the object up and continue executing the rest of its commands without noticing this problem. Eventually every step subsequent to this failure will also fail.

A better strategy for performing the same task, is using a robot with vision

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sensors, and programming it to go to the object’s position (as a variable) to pick it up. Regardless of where the object is positioned, robot will localize it using its sensors and successfully pick it up. This difference between the two programming paradigms; “go to x, y, z” and “go to an object’s position” makes a big difference in making the system less prone to making mistakes in unexpected conditions which is crucial for last mile factory automation.

About the Author Daghan Cam is the Co-founder and CEO of Ai Build, a London based startup developing Artificial Intelligence and Robotics technologies for the construction industry. He is also a visiting lecturer at University College London doing research on robotic fabrication, large scale 3d printing and parallel algorithms with GPU computing.

His work focuses on developing intelligence for automating complex tasks in design and manufacturing by using computer vision and machine learning techniques.

In this scenario where robots make autonomous decisions by using realtime sensor data, a feedback loop is established between physical and digital environments. The constant flow of information from physical to digital and vice versa create immense amounts of structured data which is the fuel for AI powered autonomous factories of the future. Such actionmeasurement-action strategies allow the systems to self-improve over time, creating a data network effect in manufacturing. The more one process is executed, the more efficient it will get. This allows super-human performance in almost every domain given enough data.

Robots making hundreds of decisions every second and receiving hundreds of measurements from the environment and from other devices also require massive computation and storage capabilities. Despite the popularity of cloud computing in most applications today, a decentralized compute power is necessary for most robotic applications and for IoT devices in general. The throughput between the edge and the cloud through internet connectivity is simply not enough to process all data generated by sensors and make sensible decisions in realtime. So edge computing, or fog computing - dedicated servers on premise as a layer between individual devices and the cloud - will likely be the norm in autonomous factories of the future unless we experience a breakthrough in science that leads to infinitely fast and reliable internet connectivity. However unlike compute power, storage of important data, that is filtered on the edge, should be centralized in order to achieve the best decision making models at every location.

As a summary, a few conclusions and predictions about the future are: Ÿ

We are moving towards an autonomous black-box factory model where the factory robots are operated by themselves without human intervention.

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These factories will be powered by the data that is generated by themselves and their productivity will increase over time exceeding human performance in every process involved in manufacturing.

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Factories will compute on-premise / on-edge and they will push important data to cloud for benefiting from a shared pool of data with other factories.

www.ai-build.com

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www.emirates.com