New homes are increasingly being outfitted
with solar panels, heat pumps, rechargeable
batteries and other means of producing and
storing heat, electricity and gas, all of
which interconnect with the electrical grid.
At the level of an entire neighborhood, these
decentralized, intermittent energy sources
form a complex network, which can also include
energy-consuming installations such as electric
vehicle charging stations.
Managing these multi-energy systems and optimizing
energy costs raises a number of questions.
Should energy be consumed when it is produced,
sold to the grid, or stored for later use?
And how should various energy sources be distributed
if there are groups of consumers generating
their own energy?
Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology
(CSEM) has developed smart, predictive software
capable of providing real-time answers to
these questions.
Designed for non-specialists, it makes use
of weather forecasts, data from local infrastructure,
residents' consumption habits and market energy
costs.
As its name indicates, Maestro is like an
orchestra conductor that automatically manages
resources and keeps costs down.
An online simulator, based on a building with
eight family apartments, is available on their
website.
You can find the link in the description of
this video.
All of Maestro's decisions are based on cost
management.
When a solar panel is in use, for example,
the software can tell you whether it's more
advantageous to charge your electric vehicle,
store the energy, or sell it to the grid.
The system works for individual homes, but
it could also prove to be very useful for
a self-sufficient community, sharing various
renewable energy sources across several homes.
The software is easy to use and can be quickly
adapted to individual neighborhoods.
To start with, parameters such as solar panel
size, buildings' surface area, battery storage
capacity and user preferences and priorities
are fed into a planning tool.
Production data from energy installations,
provided by sensors, are then sent to the
cloud, where Maestro automatically compares
possible consumption decisions and identifies
the most cost-effective one.
Instructions are sent back to the computer,
which carries them out on site.
Maestro can incorporate boilers, heat pumps
and electric vehicle charging stations, as
well as electric batteries, renewable energy
sources such as solar panels and wind turbines,
power-to-gas facilities, thermal storage tanks,
and more.
Other systems on the market are designed only
for individual homes and often employ a very
simple mechanism of increasing power consumption
whenever solar energy is produced.
Maestro, on the other hand, can be used just
as well for an entire neighborhood, where
the network is more complex.
It can also accommodate other energy-consuming
installations such as electric vehicle charging
stations and home heating and cooling systems.
And, Maestro looks at weather forecasts for
the coming days, which means that it can factor
future needs into its consumption decisions.
More broadly, the system is designed to keep
costs down.
