New Feature - Flexible Report Mechanism to offer Hybrid meter data processing

Release v3.14.0

Flexible Report Mechanism to offer Hybrid meter data processing

Introduction

With our clients, their end-users and our own UX experts we evaluated the consumer value of real time events (detecting appliance on/off events and power level thresholds) with appliance-specific consumption insights (washing machine, EV charging, heat pump, etc) vs. appliance category activity insights (space heating, cooking, laundry, etc.).

We see that the pure high resolution data processing in the cloud (day-late appliance level disaggregation), coming from our Smart Bridge HW or new generation smart meters, offer less value for the majority of use-cases as most high intensive and influenceable appliance consumptions can be detected with low granular data cloud processing in combination with our on-the-edge appliance event detections. For many use-cases the more interesting appliance types are not always requiring high resolution cloud-based data processing capabilities (more cloud storage expensive) to be effective in reaching their goals.

Therefor a hybrid meter data processing infrastructure setup is now supporting a combination of 1) on the meter / Smart Bridge edge high resolution events and power data reporting, combined with 2) low resolution cloud-based meter data disaggregation processing.

The platform and hardware Flexible Report Mechanism is a new configuration setting of our Insight service that will help optimizing resource utilization and delivering substantial cost savings for the INSIGHT platform, that can reach up to 41%* by reducing cloud storage requirements compared to a constant high resolution cloud based reporting mode coming in from HW.

Real-time appliance insights, with energy disaggregation-level choices

Our Smart Bridges are now equipped with updated firmware, enabling them to transmit energy measurements to the cloud by default in 15-minute intervals from hardware Smart Bridges. Moreover, all your favorite On-The-Edge features, from real-time household power levels to real-time appliance event (EV, Washing machine, Water Immersion Heater) & usage detection, remain fully intact. Optionally the Smart Bridge can be configured to send 1-10 second meter reads (instead of 15 minute interval readings) to the cloud for an all appliances level disaggregation reporting service (the next day).

The same principles and infrastructure can be applied with the latest generation of smart meters (e.g. Itron Riva) where our Energy AI firmware is running on the edge in smart meters in combination with our Insight SaaS.

Access high resolution power graphs on demand

For users who seek instant detailed, real-time (1-10 sec) power consumption data, the Flexible Report Mechanism allows them to access high-resolution information whenever they need it by an API call that opens up the Smart Bridge to send out a real time power data stream on demand. This empowers them to understand their appliance consumption and their own behaviour better and make informed decisions about their energy usage if they need to.

Energy disaggregation on appliance category activity or individual appliance-specific level

Energy disaggregation is by default available on appliance category levels, offering insights into energy consumption patterns at the activity level. While this may not identify all specific household appliances, this feature still provides very valuable insights to assist in managing energy consumption of high energy intensive appliances (EV, PV, heat pumps, AC) more effectively.

Optionally the Smart Bridge can be set in to a high resolution reporting mode towards the disaggregation cloud-based service to deliver each next day a highly detailed events & consumption break down reports per appliance incl. monthly appliance efficiency reports.

How to use it

To make the most of the Flexible Report Mechanism of our Smart Bridge HW or with the latest generation of smart meters running our firmware, we recommend referring to our comprehensive API documentation and relevant API guide.

* The cost reduction has been estimated for Insight platforms where all SmartBridges report High Resolution data (1-10 second granularity cloud reporting) compared to the scenario of all SmartBridges being configured with the Flexible Report Mechanism (using 15 minute granularity cloud reporting), without having historical data in a different resolution.