'This EMS in the meter box takes away headaches from installer'

Installing an Energy Management System (EMS) is not an everyday job for installers and can give you sleepless nights. Provider Currentt says it has now found the solution to that: a local system with only known connections. 'You don't need any understanding of software and it is completely designed with the installer in mind,' says Koen Mulders, co-founder of Currentt.

Next year, the net-metering scheme will be abolished, making it imperative for households and businesses with solar panels to use their energy themselves as much as possible. If, in addition to solar panels, they have batteries, a heat battery and large consumers such as charging stations or a jacuzzi, there are certainly opportunities to do so. Installing an Energy Management System (EMS) is then an obvious choice. But as an installer, you are not immediately also an expert in software systems. That is where Currentt comes in.

Known connections

Installing Currentt's EMS is mostly a matter of familiar electrician work in the meter box, says Koen Mulders. The system runs entirely on a local device, the Navigator, which is hung on the dinrail in the meter box. There are a large number of different connections on it, with which the installer is very familiar. That also makes it universally applicable for all brands. You connect the inverter of the solar panels to it, the heat pump, the charging station, the batteries, the heat storage, the jacuzzi, even dumb water heaters can be connected to it. Through a wizard on your tablet, developed together with installers, all those devices are then added and quickly recognized by the system. This makes the system attractive to installers, which Mulders believes is important. Because it all starts with the installer, who really makes the energy transition possible. If he doesn't see anything in it, you won't get in anywhere.'

Koen Mulders, co-founder of Currentt

The basis is electrical engineering

'Energy management is shifting energy consumption over time, to the time when it is most beneficial,' is how Mulders describes the field. 'That's the basics and that's what everyone does. But when you talk to the installer, there are very different questions at play. Then there are questions from customers about feed-in costs, the end of balancing, restrictions due to grid congestion, and how to deal with them. An EMS is a solution to that, so installing it is very interesting. But it can also be difficult.'

Those who are at the forefront as installers know that all devices in a building need to be able to talk to each other for a smart collaborative whole, Mulders believes. 'But that is very complex, with all different protocols. Because there are no mandatory standards and every brand does it slightly differently. This makes it very complicated for the installer. And the profession of installer has recently become quite complicated. You have to know everything: roof structures, inverters, charging stations, batteries, installation regulations. And now software as well? While it all started with electrical engineering. That's where the knowledge lies.

The installer basically has three requirements for a system, Mulders says based on conversations he has had with installers. 'First, the installer wants one solution, independent of the brands installed, that he can apply everywhere, in private homes and in companies. Second, he wants a simple installation, for which you don't have to be a software expert. And finally, he wants the solution to be robust and secure. With these three requirements in mind, we developed our solution.'

Benefits of a local EMS

So the fact that Currentt's EMS runs locally has the big advantage that it feels familiar to the installer and that all appliances of all brands can be easily connected to it. But there are more advantages, Mulders argues. For example, as mentioned, you can connect dumb appliances to it, such as a water heater, so that it will heat water when there is power left. 'You just connect that to the EMS device and then power is put on it or not. The water heater itself takes care of its own security. Try that with a cloud system.'

Indeed, many other systems are cloud-based. 'So those live outside the building. Therefore, you always need an Internet connection for those systems, which is not the case for Currentt. Moreover, cloud systems are more vulnerable than a local EMS.'

Currentt's EMS is connected to the Internet, but it cannot be accessed from the outside. 'There is no microprocessor in Currentt, so there is also no operating system on it like Windows or Linux, which you can call from outside and which can be hacked,' Mulders explains. 'There is a microcontroller inside, and therefore the device can only call up information itself, for example about weather forecasts or energy prices. This makes it much less vulnerable. Moreover, each device has its own ID, which is literally burned in after production and cannot be changed. Right from the start, we developed it with security in mind.'

1.7 million for further development and rollout

Recently, Currentt secured an investment of 1.7 million. When asked what will be done with that money, Mulders is clear. 'We are going to use that to further develop the software. We keep doing that to enable more applications and to keep making smarter and better switches. In addition, we are going to use the money for the roll out of the system. In October Currentt's EMS will be available on the market.'