Energy digitalization

Energy digitalization is completely transforming traditional electrical systems and allowing us to adopt a reliable, efficient and sustainable grid. The World Economic Forum, during its last global meeting held in January in Switzerland, discussed and established recommendations for  fast and effective adoption of digitalization of electrical systems: read more.

Energy digitalization will provide several advantages, not least of all the opening of new communication and information channels for consumers. They will be able to easily know in real time all information about the energy consumption of their homes or businesses to take efficiency and saving measures in this regard. Different studies show that just the provision of real time feedback on a household energy consumption allows consumers to reduce consumption by 5-15% [1]. Recently, numerous applications have been developed to provide disaggregate information of the consumption of different devices and these have been very successful in helping users to save on their electricity bill.

Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring (NIML) is a sophisticated way to monitor energy consumption. It allows consumers to interpret how their consumption is distributed among the different devices in the electrical grid of a household or building without installing a lot of sensors, for which installation and maintenance would be expensive. NIML systems need state-of-the-art analysis techniques, sometimes supported by artificial intelligence to learn and become more precise as time goes by. The company Mirubee uses this technique and helps users to save on their electricity bill thanks to an energy consumption measuring system and an app that shows personal recommendations to save energy.

There are also some applications for bigger energy consumers, such as commercial buildings. With them, consumers know how much energy is generated by the different energy generators installed and the emissions produced in their daily operation.

Do not wait any longer to form part of this digital revolution and become an active and responsible user. Technology and applications are already within everybody’s reach!

[1] Sarah Darby, 2006, The Effectiveness of Feedback on Energy Consumption: A Review for DEFRA of the Literature on Metering, Billing and Direct Displays. Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford: http://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/research/energy/downloads/smart-metering-report.pdf