SimpleXoft

     Monitor, control, forecast, schedule, and optimize DERs and the power grid.
   The energy industry is rapidly evolving. There has been pressure to develop systems capable of managing distributed energy resources (DERs), yet immense uncertainty due to a fast-moving digital market and regulations struggling to keep up.
    Historically, Load Management Systems (LMS) were used for lowering system loads using one-way communication. While satisfactory for several decades, the emergence of the “smart grid” in the early 2000s brought Demand Response Management Systems (DRMS) to the market, with the capability for two-way communication. A DRMS receives information from load control devices and then determines the availability of resources, helping precisely control customers’ energy loads at selected locations on the grid. This capability led utility companies to gradually replace LMS with DRMS.
    Going forward, Distributed Energy Resources Management Systems (DERMS) have gained momentum in the 2010s due to the increase of renewables and the ability to store energy at the consumer level, making the following true:

• Distributed energy generation is more widely implemented (solar panels, wind farms)
• Energy storage is now available on-premise, and the amount is growing
• Electric car batteries are also being used for storage
• The emergence of an energy efficiency trend, where consumers use more energy efficient electrical devices
• Demand response matching is now even more challenging, due to adding solar panels and consumer-based energy storage in addition to more traditional energy sources

    Our client, a leading energy and utilities business and Fortune 100 company needed to develop a Distributed Energy Resources Management System (DERMS) that they could bring to the market to meet their customers’ demand.

    Driving R&D projects via Agile teams with deep industry knowledge
   SimpleXoft gathered a team of ten energy and software development experts to implement DERMS components. The client wanted to start with several R&D projects to develop prototypes that could adapt to more complex energy systems (solar, wind, and consumer-based energy storage).
    Effective distributed energy resources (DER) management is the key to succeeding in the changing energy market. Utilities need to balance customer demands (such as rooftop solar and storage) with the economic impact on non-DER customers and adapt tariff schemes accordingly.
    Strong leadership, industry knowledge, and over 12 years’ experience of delivering projects in the energy industry (combined with deep technology expertise), made Luxoft a great fit for the project. The distributed team adopted an Agile approach to formulate requirements, determine the best solution architecture, and deliver the right components to get to market faster.

  Optimized grid operations using distributed energy resource management software
  SimpleXoft was involved in the full project lifecycle, i.e. requirements exploration, the R&D phase, architecture design, development, testing, and delivery.
  By developing the source code for seven different DERMS system components,          SimpleXoft delivered the following DERMS features:

• Integration with electricity market systems, third-party aggregators, and regional markets
• Grid network visualization, showing equipment statuses and situation awareness based on equipment states; making asset management effective
• DER forecasting smart grid based on the current state and historical data, including weather providers
• A common user interface, making a framework for future UI development
• SimpleXoft also customized different parts of the solution for particular end-client needs and integrated with the Integrated Distribution Management System (IDMS). As the evolution of the DERMS product progresses, Luxoft continues to deliver new features periodically, making sure our client stays ahead of the market.

   Our client is able to get ahead of its competitors, drive industry transformation (making power more accessible, affordable, and sustainable) and offer a streamlined DERMS solution to the market.
   This solution also cut UI development costs by 25–30% across the whole DERMS solution, providing a seamless experience throughout.
   Currently, a few regions have already implemented this DERMS module, and this solution is leading the way and setting the standards for all industry experts to implement.