Energence Platform^© solution

 For Renewable Energy manufacturers and installers, Housing Associations, municipal Councils, Agencies, Developers, Energy consultancies, M&E contractors, Investors, and Research institutes

 The Energence Platform is an automated web-service that enables clients to map, monitor, and evaluate the performance of renewable energy (and other equipment) products and services. Financial investors in companies and projects also need to be able to track the performance of their investments.

Clients may install different technologies in different locations, but will want to be able to aggregate the CO₂ and  financial savings made across multiple projects. They may also want to compare different technology efficiencies and investment models.

Monitoring thousands of installations that have been installed by many different companies, for many different clients, can lead to administrative chaos. The Platform brings administrative discipline to this process, and enables companies and clients to e-farm performance data in a low cost user friendly way.

 A unique"Birth Certificate" is created for each project including key installation parameters such as orientation and pitch for solar, and borehole depth and geology for heat pumps. The Certificate also holds information about the type and size of building, the predicted energy loads, activity or occupancy density, and essential project management details.

 The Certificates are tagged to a Google map for visualization

• Real time Feed In Tariff monitoring to ensure maximum Return On Investment for clients.
• Renewable Heat Incentive monitoring (as of July 2011).
• Installation portfolio management with dedicated Birth Certificate database.
• Monitored data sorting capability in a range of configurations.
• Automated email alert system in the event of equipment failure or loss of performance.
• Individual PV inverters monitored to ensure array performance.
• Turnkey monitoring hardware supply and fit solution.

Energence Services

 The Platform is a low-cost mass deployment web-service that can be provided to clients on project managed basis or under a license agreement.

Monitoring hardware: For PV monitoring Energence would advise clients to install Ofgem accredited smart meters. The smart meters send telemetry direct to the Energence Platform. However, it may be preferable at times to use a data-logger with a combination of hardwired or wireless transmitters attached to conventional meters.

Monitoring heat pumps, solar thermal, and biomass is more complicated. To qualify for the Renewable Heat Incentive a heat meter must be installed. kWh generation data from the heat meter is collected by a data-logger which in turn sends the data to the Energence Platform.

If clients want to track not just the generation but also the efficiency of the heat pump or solar thermal system, then an electric meter must also be installed and linked to the data-logger.

Energence can supply a monitoring data-logger if required. The logger is configured to monitor all types of renewable (and-low carbon) energy generation, other energy equipment, and grid energy use in buildings. The logger absorbs data from the monitoring devices attached to the energy equipment and then the data is sent via GPRS telemetry to the Energence server so clients can view it on a secure web page. 

Energence Ltd also offers a energy and sustainability advice service for FIT/RHI strategies, monitoring solutions, and Planning policy issues. Energence (and its associates) hold professional indemnity insurance.

 For service and licensing rates please contact Energence Ltd.

Return On Investment and efficient administration

 The Feed In Tariff, Renewable Heat Incentive, and Carbon Reduction Commitment are powerful drivers for companies and organizations to invest in solar PV, solar thermal, heat pumps, and energy efficiency equipment. 

To ensure a maximum return on investment  this equipment needs to be continually monitored so that any drop in performance is immediately identified. 

Efficient monitoring  has two parts. First, the actual process of monitoring, and second, the administration of the monitoring. One without the other can lead to confusion with companies and organizations not knowing what is being monitored - or what use the monitored data really is.

The Energence Platform resolves these issues by providing an automated mapping and monitoring solution that enables the efficient administration of a large portfolio of projects that often have multiple partners and complex installation parameters. 

Local Planning Authority service: Planning and Building Regulation background

 Local borough planning policies often require new developments to cut CO₂ emissions by at least 10% or 20% using on-site renewable energy. The Code for Sustainable Homes will also mean a significant increase in the use of renewable and/or low-carbon energy equipment.

Currently the Government expects all new building developments to generate a proportion of their energy use energy from renewable and low carbon sources. The Planning and Energy Act (2008) confirms boroughs right to adopt a prescriptive renewable energy planning policies.Housing Associations have a requirement to build to Code for Sustainable Homes Level 3 or 4.

Evolving Government policies, particularly the Localism Agenda, may mean that in some boroughs renewable policies will be replaced by CO₂ reduction policies or neighbourhood requirements, but in many cases it will require some renewables to meet these targets.

However, there is concern that Planning Authorities will lose track of what renewables and/or low-carbon equipment was installed, when and where it was installed, and perhaps most importantly, whether it is working. The Platform can help Local Planning Authorities confirm compliance with Policy and Code for Sustainable Homes/BREEAM.

 The Energence Platform solution has been designed to solve clients problems in a way that:

     a) has minimal cost to clients

     b) minimizes workload for project managers

     c) does not interfere with clients internal IT systems

PV performance

 The Energence Platform assesses the performance of PV installations using a combination of comparison against predicted solar irradiance from the EU PV GIS data, and against other installations in the geographical area. On site irradiance sensors can also be installed alongside the PV array for fine grained analysis.

EU PV GIS system: The EU has developed a solar radiation database from climatologic data homogenized for Europe and available in the European Solar Radiation Atlas. The model algorithm estimates beam, diffuse and reflected components of the clear-sky and real-sky global irradiance/irradiation on horizontal or inclined surfaces. The total daily irradiation [Wh.m^-2] is computed by the integration of the irradiance values [W.m^-2] calculated at regular time intervals over the day. For each time step during the day the computation accounts for sky obstruction (shadowing) by local terrain features (hills or mountains), calculated from the digital elevation model.

The database consists of raster maps representing twelve monthly averages and one annual average of daily sums of global irradiation for horizontal surfaces, as well as those inclined at angles of 15, 25, and 40 degrees. Besides these data, raster maps of clear-sky irradiation, the Linke turbidity, and the ratio D/G were computed.  The scheme below describes the methodology and accuracy of the database.