Eastern Docklands Grid Congestion

IoT Device Management Platform – City of Amsterdam & Liander

The Challenge

With the transition to ‘all electric’ in residential areas, network operators experience local congestion problems. Due to more and more electric cars being plugged in, heat pumps installed and electric cooking, evening demand soars. On the other hand, electricity production by rooftop solar is increasing. Unfortunately, production and demand don’t coincide, causing serious grid congestion problems for operators such as Liander. Together with the City of Amsterdam and Resourcefully, a solution is developed which incentivises residents to play an active role, in shifting energy consumption outside rush hours.

Engage Energy Community

When adjusting behaviour it all starts with residents willing and able to change their behaviour. Via local communities and with invitations by the City of Amsterdam, residents were informed about how grid congestion can also impact them. Secondly, they are offered a solution which gives them immediate real time insight in their own power consumption and invites them through personalised challenges to shift consumption at those moments grid congestion is expected. Earned points have a money value and are paid out by the local energy community.

Realtime insights

Each participating resident is offered a dongle to connect to their smart meter. The dongle gives them real time insight in their actual power consumption and allows them to understand usage of each home device. The real time data is shared anonymously on a district level. At district level the real time data is aggregated to enable accurate forecasting on what can be expected at the mid voltage transformer. Also this mid voltage transformer is monitored. The residents have a dedicated app to see their own consumption as well as the status of their local grid.

Forecast and incentivise

The aggregated real time power data is split into the consumption as well as solar production components. Using forecasting models, the net power load on the mid voltage transformer is forecasted. The moment grid congestion is forecasted, each individual household receives a challenge with a personalised power target based on their historical behaviour. This takes care that every resident can join with a realistic target. The challenges are accompanied with personalised tips, based on the residents home characteristics. The targets and tips are set up to maximise impact preparing for a future with automated response on dynamic grid tariffs.

Connect smart meters

In this case the smart meters are sharing their real time data with individual users as well as, anonymously, to the district. Linking this data with forecasting models for consumption and solar power, and the real time data for the mid voltage transformer leads to an accurate forecast of the net power on the transformer. Therefore grid congestion can be forecasted. OpenRemote offers the relevant protocol agents to connect all meters as well as secure that data is only accessible by authorised users.

IoT Device Management Platform

Managing IoT devices can become complex for manufacturers or integrators distributing large numbers of products to customers.

The OpenRemote IoT Platform connects and controls all your devices, using auto provisioning combined with MQTT broker, or its Edge Gateway. More importantly, alerts are set to monitor optimal performance as well as unexpected behaviour. Notifications are send to installers or end users to take action.

A dashboard for you as manufacturer or integrator, and mobile apps for installers and end users. All can be designed and tailored to your specific context and identity, and hosted in your own secure environment.