Communications of the ACM
Launch of First Operating System For Smart Grid Home Automation
The Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy System Technology (IWES) has founded the Open Gateway Energy Management Alliance (OGEMA) to promote an open energy management software platform that connects a customer's loads and generators to the control stations of the power supply system while also featuring a customer display for user interaction. The software platform will enable end customers to automatically see the future variable price of electricity and shift energy consumption according to supply.
"Already today electricity is for free on the German Energy Exchange at times when large power plants have to be derated due to high feed-in from wind power," says Fraunhofer IWES' Philipp Straub. "Using automated load-shifting, private households and small business should also benefit from such favorable electricity prices."
Through the gateway platform's open nature, anyone will be able to convert concepts into software, even if they are not OGEMA participants. The initiative involves the rapid development of numerous applications that will encompass the unique needs of private households, supermarkets, small businesses, and public institutions and help to harness the potential for energy efficiency which is not currently available.
The OGEMA-provided interfaces also can be used by the developers of driver software for linking the gateway to devices and energy systems within the building as well as to the control stations of the energy suppliers.
From Fraunhofer Institute
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