Energy Hubs with Motus and OpenRemote

Feb 7, 2018 | Blog, Use Cases

Blending energy domain expertise and physics with AI

Energy Hubs are becoming essential in the transition toward sustainable energy. By integrating various energy sources, such as heating systems, solar panels, EV charging, batteries and even manufacturing process infrastructure, Energy Hubs enable the smart distribution of energy within a shared network. This unlocks significant benefits, including reduced energy costs, maximised use of renewable sources, and reduced dependency on the electricity grid.

However, managing an Energy Hub is complex. Multiple stakeholders, grid constraints, fluctuating energy prices, unpredictable renewable generation, undisputed primary industrial processes, all add to the challenge. Traditional Energy Management Systems (EMS) either rely on static physics based rules or claim to do everything with AI. Blending both approaches, and doing it in open source, is the key to succes.

A Smarter Approach with Motus and OpenRemote

OpenRemote takes a unique, mixed Rule and AI-driven approach. Instead of ignoring the laws of physics and efficient mathematics, acting as the basis for Motus, Kersten’s EMS solution. Motus continuously optimises energy flows in real-time, ensuring an Energy Hub is not just managed but strategically controlled. Moreover, with a 100% open source approach by OpenRemote, other Energy Hubs benefit and can build on top of what’s already there.

Motus with OpenRemote follows five key steps:

  1. Digital Twin – A realtime virtual model of the Energy Hub maps out assets, grid constraints, and energy flows enables real-time optimisation, while running future scenario’s on the side.
  2. Optimisation based on physics enhanced with AI – Dynamic control of batteries, solar panels, EV charging infrastructure, responding to price fluctuations and dynamic grid capacity.
  3. Multilayer approach – Industries within the Energy Hub run their own EMS setting their optimisation strategy, while the Energy Hub EMS provides overall optimisations. Existing congestion and energy markets can be integrated without creating conflicts.
  4. Active monitoring – Live insights and automated adjustments ensure optimal energy deployment at all times. You can build your own UI based rules, add your own services, or trust the build in forecasting and optimisation routines.
  5. Secure and reliable maintenance – The multilayer physical infrastructure, enables secure remote access of local PLCs, EMS, and gateway solutions, key for swift and secure maintenance by a system integrator.

This article explores how Motus with OpenRemote enables smart Energy Hubs, making them more efficient, flexible, and future-proof, taking the example of The Hague’s Smart Beach Energy Hub.

The Foundation for an Optimised Energy Hub

Before an Energy Hub becomes fully operational, it is crucial to understand how energy assets interact. Without proper insights, grid constraints, inefficient energy usage, and misaligned optimisation strategies can lead to costly penalties or wasted renewable energy.

This is where the Motus OpenRemote Manager comes in. By creating a realtime representation of the Energy Hub, businesses can connect existing energy flows, smart devices, as well as test different scenarios, and optimise strategies before implementation.

Connecting existing assets in a Digital Twin

Based on OpenRemote the foundation is set to run your Energy Hub:

  • Realtime monitoring and control – Connecting realtime data through meters, PLCs, and gateways of any brand and with any protocol. 
  • Simulation  – Adding simulated data, or simulated assets like batteries, extra solar panels, to run different scenarios in realtime.
  • Forecasting – Forecasting future energy prices, energy consumption, wind- and solar production, dynamic grid capacity.
  • Optimisation strategies – Set optimisation strategies in both the existing contact or with additional scenarios, both for the Energy Hub as well as individual EMS with a multi-layer approach. Examples:
    • Agree a dynamic capacity based contract with your grid operator to maximise the available capacity? 
    • Forecast and optimise your net consumption to sign an attractive contract with your energy provider, without a penalty for causing any imbalance?
    • Agree internal dynamic tariffs to maximise self consumption within the Energy Hub and immediately have a transparent and fair model to invoice costs.

The Hague’s Smart Beach Energy Hub

The Smart Beach Energy Hub The Hague, realised by Kersten Techniek is an Energy Hub with the City port service, Beach stadium, shore-power, multiple beach pavilions and shared solar production and battery as participants. The shared contract capacity is limited to 1,000 kW, and the the grid operator Stedin offers a dynamic, day ahead capacity based contract to limit capacity to 500 kW, for a maximum period of 2 hours, once a day. Without the Smart Energy Hub, this 1,000 kW limit would not have been sufficient and shorepower as well as additional beach pavilions couldn’t have joined, given individual capacity needs. Let alone, dynamic contracts with Stedin would not have been realistic.

In addition the Energy Hub has signed a contract with the energy provider SEP. The provider offers an attractive dynamic energy tariff contract without any unbalance penalties. With the Smart Energy Hub this contract leads to the best energy prices for all .

Step 1: Connecting all Energy Hub members

Within the Smart Energy Hub, the system integrator Kersten Techniek and has installed meters, gateways and local EMS instances, enabling the real-time monitoring and control of all assets.

By strategically installing OpenRemote’s gateways solution locally as EMS for members, the members have their own individual EMS solution running independently of the central Smart Energy Hub EMS (CEMS). Moreover it offers Kersten Techniek remote access to all locations for further continuous optimisation as well as maintenance.

Step 2: Forecasting

The Energy Hub requires forecasting of consumption profiles, production based on weather forecasts, energy tariffs, and schedule based consumption. The latter refers to e.g. EV charging which relates to workflow schedules or one time events such as at the Beach stadium.

This is where Motus blends events, physics, and AI/ML Methods with OpenRemote

  • Pricing – To forecast energy prices, OpenRemote includes advanced AI based methods to forecast pricing ahead of them being published. This pricing is relevant to create optimisations taking into account both dynamic grid operator as well as energy contracts
  • Consumption – To effectively forecast energy consumption, OpenRemote uses a range of methods to focus on merely historic behaviour, or include multiple conditions such as outdoor temperature, wind or sun irradiance. This approach safeguards both a reliable, transparent end cost effective approach.
  • Production – Renewable energy production depends on weather forecasts, whether wind or solar based. OpenRemote includes forecasts, connecting to your favourite weather forecast service.
  • Scheduling – Some forecasts are calendar based and even one time. In this case the EVs of the City Port have stringent requirements around availability and therefore their charging requirements can be scheduled. Similarly, beach events are scheduled yearly and can not be forecasted otherwise. Your production schedules could be similar.
  • Internal dynamic tariffs – To communicate effectively between the Smart Energy Hub and individual EMS systems, OpenRemote forecasts internal tariffs for sharing, which is an effective method to address individual EMS solutions and let them work together with the Central Smart Energy Hub EMS.
Step 3: Set the optimisation strategy

Based on continuously changing real time conditions and the continuously forecasted profiles, Motus runs optimisation strategies every minute, safeguarding agreed dynamic capacity based contracts as well as avoiding energy unbalance.

This is where Motus plugs in services and enables your optimisation strategy with OpenRemote

  • Dynamic Capacity Based Contract – Grid Operator Stedin communicates dynamic capacity through GOPACS, the service provider for net congestion. The Smart Energy Hub’s optimisation directly controls shared flexible assets such as battery, charging infrastructure, heating and cooling, and broadcasts internal price signals for flex requests per EMS. This leads to minimum reservation of battery capacity for this service. 
  • Optimisation flex 48 hours ahead – Based on forecasted day ahead energy tariffs, the net consumption of the Energy Hub is forecasted and submitted to to the Energy Provider SEP. The energy provider buys the electricity on the energy market and charges costs without any penalty for unbalance. The optimisation controls available remaining flexibility to avoid any deviation from the initial forecast, avoiding any unbalance costs.
  • Remaining flex to trade – The Smart Energy Hub forecasts the remaining flexibility such that it can respond to intraday flex requests. As penalties are known, the bid prices are also dynamically forecasted to enable automatic bidding.
  • Optimise the individual EMS – The Central Smart Energy Hub EMS shares dynamic pricing to the individual EMS, whether or not as build on OpenRemote. This leaves the individual members with all the freedom to decide on which strategy to follow, striking the balance between comfort, reliability of primary process, and costs.
  • Optimise maintenance – Kersten Techniek is the system integrator managing the complete hardware and software infrastructure and has advanced alerting for (preventive) maintenance as well as secure remote access to incrementally optimise and access the Energy Hub.

The Results?

The Smart Energy Hub in The Hague and all existing and new stakeholders benefit from the results:

The Smart Energy Hub energy cooperation has signed a financially attractive contract with both the Grid operator and the Energy provider, savings costs.

Individual members benefit from low prices and have a cost incentive to participate to energy sharing to avoid congestion as well as benefit the best energy prices.

The cooperation has a high quality, reliable and cost effective service offer from Kersten Techniek to enable maintenance of the full Energy Hub solution, software, hardware and infrastructure, through advanced alerting and secure remote acces to all systems on site.

As OpenRemote is open source, new users benefit in full transparency, and can build upon what’s already there, without a vendor lock-in.