Melissa Smart A/C Controllers are being installed in Norway.

MClimate will provide Melissa Smart A/C devices to help Norwegian utility Eidsiva’s customers get more information about their energy usage at home. The Melissa WiFi devices will be used in 300 Norwegian homes as a part of the energy engagement project EnergIQ run by Eliq and the Norwegian utility Eidsiva. Customers will use MClimate’s A/C Wi-Fi Controller to better understand their electricity consumption.

What are they going to be used for?

Eliq is a Swedish company which provides a utility customer engagement platform to offer white label apps for utility customers with the ability to track their energy usage based on data from electricity meters and smart home devices. The App collates meter readings, tariffs and customer billing information from the utility company, with weather and smart home data from third-party integrations in order to provide overall information about customer’s energy consumption and ways to control and optimize it. The application also includes energy production monitoring capability and users can monitor production and consumption on the one screen. Eidsiva is Norway's fifth largest power supplier with 125,000 customers, primarily within its own supply area in Oppland and Hedmark. Eidsiva operates 22,000 kilometers of power grid.

About the project.

The purpose of the project EnergIQ is to test the technology in practice, at home with ordinary consumers. In this way, one can find the most cost-effective solutions for energy reduction, and raise awareness of energy saving among consumers who get this equipment installed. The project is run in the period of 2016 – 2021. During this time almost 1 500 volunteer pilot customers get smart tips and advice on how to reduce their energy consumption. Pilot customers receive close monitoring and monthly comparison of their consumption compared to previous years' consumption and different control groups. Experience indicates that customers with real-time energy information as the only instrumentation can reduce their energy consumption by 6%, while customers who have energy information and control capabilities can reduce their energy consumption by 20%.

Norway’s energy market is one of the most innovative throughout Europe.

Hydropower is currently the source of over 96% of Norway’s electricity and there are more than 110,000 electric cars in use in the country. The Government has the ambition to achieve 100% clean electricity generation by 2050. In the meanwhile, the largest innovation of the Norwegian power grid for the last 100 years is going on. The Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) has decided that all electricity customers in Norway should have smart electricity meters by 1 January 2019. Smart meters will provide consumers with better information about their electricity consumption and prices, and facilitate opportunities for new energy-related services. If you're interested in using оur smart home devices for customer engagement or demand response check our Utility Page!

What did we learn from European Utility Week 2017 in Amsterdam It was a really big event Here are some statistics about it: 12,000 + attendees 100 + countries 500 + utilities and grid operators 600 + exhibitors 550 speakers The future is here There is so much going on in the energy field today and all the companies who participated in the exhibition proved it. MClimate’s booth became very popular and we were excited to showcase our new products: Vicki and Bobbie. We were amazed to meet people from all around the world: USA, Portugal, Spain, France, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, United Arab Emirates, etc. We talked to utility experts from E.ON, Enel, Regaz, Enedis, Duferco Energia, EDP, Igdas, SEWA (Sharjah Electricity & Water Authority), EDF, etc and found that most of the utilities have already started the energy revolution with their businesses. We met energy trading companies that have implemented smart home devices in their customers’ offers. We discussed demand response opportunities for residential with companies who have already started pilot projects to balance the grid with interactive devices. All of the experts we talked to proved that customers are the main focus of energy companies today. We learned more about different customer engagement program for boosting energy efficiency. Energy business is not boring If you think that energy business is done by middle-aged old-fashioned engineers you are wrong. During the exhibition, we met many young people (not only males but a significant number of females which proves that energy business is not a male territory) representatives of utility companies who were very knowledgeable and experienced. We learned about many ongoing projects in the energy field that apply innovative technologies like blockchain. Challenges for energy companies During the exhibition, it was proved that the “smart home concept” is not anything revolutionary for utilities. Not anymore. It is an ongoing topic for energy companies. The market of smart home devices is already competitive and we could see this from the other exhibiting companies: Nest, Tiko, Hive, Develco, Fifthplay, etc. Energy companies have already assessed all the benefits they can get through smart home devices and they are deploying smart home technologies in their businesses. However, all these devices that are becoming part of people’s lives raise new questions. What to do with the collected behavioral data? How energy companies can benefit from household’s data for consumption, savings, what temperature people like or when they are at home. Big data concerning customers might be a gold mine for energy companies and they need to figure out how to take most of it. Big thanks to Andy Bradley who featured MClimate in one of the industry's top blogs Delta EE: "We were fascinated to meet this Bulgarian start-up, MClimate, who seems to have a bunch of talented young people!" Read his article "EUW 2017 - The hot topics" here!

MClimate will be attending the European Utility Week 2017 (October 3 - 5) in Amsterdam

European Utility Week is the premier business and innovation event which gathers together utility professionals, technology providers, and vendors. The еvent will serve as a meeting point for 12,000 international visitors from all levels of the utility value chain from technology giants to start-ups and from senior-level experts to young talent.

We will showcase our new smart devices for grid enabled water heaters and radiators!

Our newly developed devices are Bobbie and Vicki. Bobbie is our smart water heater controller, whereas Vicki is the intelligent decision for any radiator thermostat. Both will be presented for the first time exclusively in front of the guests at the event.

Something more about the devices...

Bobbie retrofits water heaters into smart ones. With this smart water heater controller, the users can monitor hot water usage, electricity consumption and the generated energy savings in real time. It is cloud-to-cloud (API) integrated and implements the M-Bus standard protocol which enables the effective communication and remote control (ON and OFF function) through mobile devices. Bobbie can communicate the available energy storage as well as the current status of the water heater. Electric utility companies can use Bobbie for demand response programs with residential customers as well as for investment in energy savings schemes. Vicki can retrofit any water-heated radiator. It replaces the manual valve you already have in use. All Vicki's at home (each radiator needs a separate unit) connect to a central hub, called MoM through the super energy efficient L.O.R.A communication protocol. Utility companies can use Vicki for their customer engagement programs and energy residential efficiency projects. Both Bobbie and Vicki use artificial intelligence algorithms and need a couple of weeks to learn the customers’ habits and schedule.

Can't wait to see you there!

If you want to learn more about us and how our products can improve your business efficiency, customer service and grid management come and talk to us at Booth number: 2A39 or just stop by to say “hi”, we will be wearing our smiley faces for sure! If you're interested to learn more about our devices click here!