IoT for Energy
Everyone is talking about decentralised energy supply today. But it can only work with the help of intelligent energy management. With increasing networking and integration into IoT, however, the demands on the hardware to be implemented are also growing rapidly.
This is what happened to Oxygen Technologies. The German company provides municipal utilities, energy supply companies and measuring point operators with IT solutions for electricity products. Its IT platform ELEMENTS offers a flexible trading and control system for decentralised energy plants of any size.
Suitable hardware is required to connect such systems, for example inverters for photovoltaic systems, electrical storage devices, digital electricity meters, combined heat and power plants, charging stations for electric vehicles, etc. In addition to a wide range of communication interfaces for linking as many systems as possible that are important for energy supply and consumption, field bus, Ethernet as well as digital/analog interfaces should also be integrated. The communication with the plants is cyclical. The data is then transferred to the cloud via an internet connection.
It quickly turned out that RevPi Compact as ELEMENTS Gate perfectly meets these requirements. The DIN rail module can easily be installed in the distribution cabinet of the prosumer households (prosumer = combination of producer and consumer). The energy technology systems available in the respective household are connected to the device via Modbus TCP, Modbus RTU, a serial interface or via a digital/analog port. The data exchange with the cloud is carried out via a secure connection. Once the ELEMENTS Gate has been installed, the energy service provider is networked and has the possibility to monitor and control all important functions via the ELEMENTS Modules running on the platform. The basis for electricity trading on a peer-to-peer basis has been created, producers and consumers can join together to form so-called energy communities and benefit equally.
Thanks to Revolution Pi’s open source approach, OXYGEN was able to create a software image tailored to its needs. In addition, we adapted the colour of the front cover as well as the device labeling according to their wishes.
Module used
RevPi Compact