There is a causal relationship between energy consumption and economic growth. Higher economic growth implies greater consumption of energy which in turn implies higher carbon emission. However, developing countries cannot stop their growth for minimizing carbon emission, the primary reason why the 2010 Copenhagen discussions fell through. There is a need for new solutions that can enable growth without compromising environmental concerns.
We can save energy in three ways: By using the devices that consume less energy (for example, LED light); avoid energy wastage; and by enforcing policy that puts a cap on the energy usage by an individual or by an enterprise. The main issues which need to be resolved to achieve the last two techniques are to detect when and where energy is wasted and how to enforce a policy to limit consumption. The current electricity infrastructure does not have any provision for tracking energy wastage on individual scale. Moreover, the present infrastructure is not integrated with information technology through which government could monitor and remotely control such wastage by using a device, such as a mobile phone, desktop computer, or any other handheld device connected to the Internet.
The smart power strip (SPS) solution from Infosys is capable of accurately identifying when and where electricity is being wasted. It is even equipped to take action to eliminate such wastage. The SPS monitors a variety of ambiance parameters, such as movement, light, sound, and temperature to identify whether energy consumption can be avoided, and if so, it can turn off the relevant devices. Similarly, based on the temperature and the presence of natural light in an enclosed area, it can decide whether air conditioning needs to be switched on or off.
A large area can be covered with multiple such SPS units which can communicate amongst one another using wireless sensor network technology and use multi-hop wireless routing to send data to a gateway that consolidates the information and forwards it to a portal on the Internet. The portal, which can be accessed from anywhere using any device, provides the interface to both monitor and control energy consumption. In addition, the devices can be scheduled to switch on or switch off at specific times.
Although researchers have developed the technology in a power strip, they say the same technology can be incorporated inside the legacy switchboards as well. Thus, even legacy appliances can be connected to the consumption points, transforming them into smart appliances with monitoring and control capability just as their smart counterparts. Smart power strip can be used as a normal power strip in which various appliances can be connected.
A SPS comprises an electronic circuit to calculate the voltage and current consumed at each plug point. Algorithms are executed in a microcontroller to calculate the power factor of devices plugged into the sockets, enabling the calculation of electricity consumption in every plug point. Moreover, electricity consumption can be controlled by switching on or off the devices connected to the plug points using relays. The system has USB, Ethernet, and Zigbee interfaces to communicate with the outside world.
The SPS can transform the existing electricity infrastructure into a software-controlled smart infrastructure. Various kinds of software applications can be built on it. For example, one can communicate with the appliances connected to the smart power strip using instant messaging (IM) just as one would communicate with an individual. One of the biggest advantages of SPS is its application in smart grid for supporting demand response mechanism. Currently, in a city environment when the demand of electricity is more than the supply, the energy/utility service provider forces consumers in a neighborhood to shut down all of their electrical appliances, a phenomenon commonly known as load shedding. Smart power strip enables selective load shedding, which means that only select appliances are turned off at the peak load times as chosen by consumers participating in the demand response (DR) program. This brings down the overall demand below the available supply as well as avoids complete blackout of a particular area.
SMART SOLUTION Infosys has developed an iPhone application through which users can access and control smart power strip from anywhere, anytime.
Smart power strips can also be used in an enterprise’s smart space management program, whereby the enterprise can monitor the occupancy of cubicles and turn off the computer monitors, VOIP phones, and lights connected to their sockets when cubicles are not occupied. An enterprise level energy consumption policy can be imposed to ensure that every employee has a particular daily, weekly, and monthly energy budget. This can change the behavior of employees of an enterprise and avoid wastage of electricity.
INSIDE OUT
There are three components of a SPS: hardware, middleware, and the application. Each SPS has a potential transformer (PT) to cut down the voltage consumption, a current transformer (CT) to bring down the current consumption, and a microcontroller to compute the power factor. Output signals from PT and CT are processed through signal conditioning circuit and are passed to the microcontroller which samples these signals at 1 kilohertz and computes the root mean square voltage and current as well as real and apparent power factor. In addition, there are temperature, movement (PIR), sound (MIC), and light sensors. The data received from smart power strips is processed and analyzed at the central server which stores the history of each smart power strip.
The middleware component of SPS connects the device to the outside world. The middleware stack (named MoJo) converts a real wireless sensor-based network to a virtual network of Java objects. The MoJo platform exposes a Java-based application programming interface to developers so that they can write applications without being aware of the functioning of the underlying wireless sensors. MoJo also ensures that power strips are networked together and enterprise level energy consumption policies can be applied. There are many APIs exposed for various functions on a power strip. For example, there are APIs for getting a list of power strips, renaming a power strip or an individual socket (or plug point), getting the current consumed by a power strip or an individual socket, getting various sensor values on the power strip, switching on and off individual socket, and more. Any software application can be built using such API.
Researchers at Infosys have developed a Web-based application that can be accessed through Internet and an iPhone application to access SPS. Like an email or a Facebook account, the user will have power management account on the Internet where he or she can monitor and control the power being consumed in his or her house or office. If someone is present at home, the application allows SPS to use discretion whether or not to turn off appliances at home. The application also throws an alert when a critical appliance like a geyser is on for some time. One can then go to the control panel and turn off the geyser remotely.
CHALLENGES
Some of the technology challenges related to SPS are measurement of power, that is, computation of power factor by sampling current and voltage and measurement of voltage over a wide range of inputs ranging from 110-220 volts. Controlling the plug points is another challenge. Reception of messages, interpreting them, and activating the relays; protection of appliances connected to plug points against surge in power supply; software fuse to cut off power even before the actual threshold is hit are key issues to deal with. Other challenges include dynamic creation of wireless mesh network; multi-hop energy-aware routing; converting physical wireless motes to Java objects; collating, calibrating, filtering and aggregating data from multiple sensors; automatic detection of smart power strips as they are plugged on the wall socket and devices are plugged into the power strip; creating a visually appealing and easy-to-use intuitive Web-based interface; and developing a simple to use application for mobile handsets to monitor and control devices connected to the smart power strips.
ACCESSIBILITY iPhone app for smart power strip.
There are several economic challenges for the SPS depending on its application domain and market segment. If the smart power strips are targeted to residential users, then they must be inexpensive enough for consumers to get the return on investment in less than a year. For example, a five-socket power strip should be priced between $25 and $40 for mass market adoption. However, providing all the monitoring and control capabilities within that price point is tough. For the commercial segment, the economic benefit is more than the savings in electricity bill. Huge benefit entails from the fact that the smart power strips will enable enterprises to meet their target carbon footprint thereby helping them brand their corporation as “green” and “sustainable”. Thus, corporations will be willing to pay higher premium than the residential market.
When positioned for the energy or utilities market, the economic challenge will be to incorporate smart demand response resulting in the energy or utility service providers giving better than existing rate to those customers that participate in DR program. We already see that there are intermediaries between the energy/utility service provider and the residential/commercial customers who are providing this service by requesting consumers to turn off their non-essential appliances at the peak load time and compensating them for their support of the DR program.
The SPS solution has been piloted in Infosys campus. When a cubicle is not occupied for a duration of more than 10 minutes at a stretch, the light, phone and monitor connected to the smart power strip are switched off. This is done by running business logic in each power strip. The project helped Infosys gain significant savings in energy bill (approximately 10 percent) and reduction of carbon footprint.
We can save energy in three ways: By using the devices that consume less energy (for example, LED light); avoid energy wastage; and by enforcing policy that puts a cap on the energy usage by an individual or by an enterprise. The main issues which need to be resolved to achieve the last two techniques are to detect when and where energy is wasted and how to enforce a policy to limit consumption. The current electricity infrastructure does not have any provision for tracking energy wastage on individual scale. Moreover, the present infrastructure is not integrated with information technology through which government could monitor and remotely control such wastage by using a device, such as a mobile phone, desktop computer, or any other handheld device connected to the Internet.
The smart power strip (SPS) solution from Infosys is capable of accurately identifying when and where electricity is being wasted. It is even equipped to take action to eliminate such wastage. The SPS monitors a variety of ambiance parameters, such as movement, light, sound, and temperature to identify whether energy consumption can be avoided, and if so, it can turn off the relevant devices. Similarly, based on the temperature and the presence of natural light in an enclosed area, it can decide whether air conditioning needs to be switched on or off.
A large area can be covered with multiple such SPS units which can communicate amongst one another using wireless sensor network technology and use multi-hop wireless routing to send data to a gateway that consolidates the information and forwards it to a portal on the Internet. The portal, which can be accessed from anywhere using any device, provides the interface to both monitor and control energy consumption. In addition, the devices can be scheduled to switch on or switch off at specific times.
Although researchers have developed the technology in a power strip, they say the same technology can be incorporated inside the legacy switchboards as well. Thus, even legacy appliances can be connected to the consumption points, transforming them into smart appliances with monitoring and control capability just as their smart counterparts. Smart power strip can be used as a normal power strip in which various appliances can be connected.
A SPS comprises an electronic circuit to calculate the voltage and current consumed at each plug point. Algorithms are executed in a microcontroller to calculate the power factor of devices plugged into the sockets, enabling the calculation of electricity consumption in every plug point. Moreover, electricity consumption can be controlled by switching on or off the devices connected to the plug points using relays. The system has USB, Ethernet, and Zigbee interfaces to communicate with the outside world.
The SPS can transform the existing electricity infrastructure into a software-controlled smart infrastructure. Various kinds of software applications can be built on it. For example, one can communicate with the appliances connected to the smart power strip using instant messaging (IM) just as one would communicate with an individual. One of the biggest advantages of SPS is its application in smart grid for supporting demand response mechanism. Currently, in a city environment when the demand of electricity is more than the supply, the energy/utility service provider forces consumers in a neighborhood to shut down all of their electrical appliances, a phenomenon commonly known as load shedding. Smart power strip enables selective load shedding, which means that only select appliances are turned off at the peak load times as chosen by consumers participating in the demand response (DR) program. This brings down the overall demand below the available supply as well as avoids complete blackout of a particular area.
SMART SOLUTION Infosys has developed an iPhone application through which users can access and control smart power strip from anywhere, anytime.
Smart power strips can also be used in an enterprise’s smart space management program, whereby the enterprise can monitor the occupancy of cubicles and turn off the computer monitors, VOIP phones, and lights connected to their sockets when cubicles are not occupied. An enterprise level energy consumption policy can be imposed to ensure that every employee has a particular daily, weekly, and monthly energy budget. This can change the behavior of employees of an enterprise and avoid wastage of electricity.
INSIDE OUT
There are three components of a SPS: hardware, middleware, and the application. Each SPS has a potential transformer (PT) to cut down the voltage consumption, a current transformer (CT) to bring down the current consumption, and a microcontroller to compute the power factor. Output signals from PT and CT are processed through signal conditioning circuit and are passed to the microcontroller which samples these signals at 1 kilohertz and computes the root mean square voltage and current as well as real and apparent power factor. In addition, there are temperature, movement (PIR), sound (MIC), and light sensors. The data received from smart power strips is processed and analyzed at the central server which stores the history of each smart power strip.
The middleware component of SPS connects the device to the outside world. The middleware stack (named MoJo) converts a real wireless sensor-based network to a virtual network of Java objects. The MoJo platform exposes a Java-based application programming interface to developers so that they can write applications without being aware of the functioning of the underlying wireless sensors. MoJo also ensures that power strips are networked together and enterprise level energy consumption policies can be applied. There are many APIs exposed for various functions on a power strip. For example, there are APIs for getting a list of power strips, renaming a power strip or an individual socket (or plug point), getting the current consumed by a power strip or an individual socket, getting various sensor values on the power strip, switching on and off individual socket, and more. Any software application can be built using such API.
Researchers at Infosys have developed a Web-based application that can be accessed through Internet and an iPhone application to access SPS. Like an email or a Facebook account, the user will have power management account on the Internet where he or she can monitor and control the power being consumed in his or her house or office. If someone is present at home, the application allows SPS to use discretion whether or not to turn off appliances at home. The application also throws an alert when a critical appliance like a geyser is on for some time. One can then go to the control panel and turn off the geyser remotely.
CHALLENGES
Some of the technology challenges related to SPS are measurement of power, that is, computation of power factor by sampling current and voltage and measurement of voltage over a wide range of inputs ranging from 110-220 volts. Controlling the plug points is another challenge. Reception of messages, interpreting them, and activating the relays; protection of appliances connected to plug points against surge in power supply; software fuse to cut off power even before the actual threshold is hit are key issues to deal with. Other challenges include dynamic creation of wireless mesh network; multi-hop energy-aware routing; converting physical wireless motes to Java objects; collating, calibrating, filtering and aggregating data from multiple sensors; automatic detection of smart power strips as they are plugged on the wall socket and devices are plugged into the power strip; creating a visually appealing and easy-to-use intuitive Web-based interface; and developing a simple to use application for mobile handsets to monitor and control devices connected to the smart power strips.
ACCESSIBILITY iPhone app for smart power strip.
There are several economic challenges for the SPS depending on its application domain and market segment. If the smart power strips are targeted to residential users, then they must be inexpensive enough for consumers to get the return on investment in less than a year. For example, a five-socket power strip should be priced between $25 and $40 for mass market adoption. However, providing all the monitoring and control capabilities within that price point is tough. For the commercial segment, the economic benefit is more than the savings in electricity bill. Huge benefit entails from the fact that the smart power strips will enable enterprises to meet their target carbon footprint thereby helping them brand their corporation as “green” and “sustainable”. Thus, corporations will be willing to pay higher premium than the residential market.
When positioned for the energy or utilities market, the economic challenge will be to incorporate smart demand response resulting in the energy or utility service providers giving better than existing rate to those customers that participate in DR program. We already see that there are intermediaries between the energy/utility service provider and the residential/commercial customers who are providing this service by requesting consumers to turn off their non-essential appliances at the peak load time and compensating them for their support of the DR program.
The SPS solution has been piloted in Infosys campus. When a cubicle is not occupied for a duration of more than 10 minutes at a stretch, the light, phone and monitor connected to the smart power strip are switched off. This is done by running business logic in each power strip. The project helped Infosys gain significant savings in energy bill (approximately 10 percent) and reduction of carbon footprint.
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