A new network-as-a-service offering that touts the ability to use software to connect and manage legacy energy storage devices has hit the market. Blue Pillar launched its new Aurora Energy Network-as-a-Service (eNaaS) during this year’s DistribuTECH Transmission and Distribution Conference in San Diego.
What makes the launch particularly interesting is Aurora’s ability to utilize a software automated deployment approach to connect any distributed energy resource (DER) or energy storage devices that generate, store, consume, switch or measure electricity. Think about the devices you use every day: meters, generators, HVAC control panels, fuel cells, solar panels and more.
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The offering is being marketed to a variety of different verticals. For example, retail energy service providers may be offering energy management services that rely on data from systems such as meters and sub-meters. On the other hand, utilities deploying a distributed energy resource management system might need assistance orchestrating customer-side energy systems and resources.
Aurora may already sound familiar to the distributed energy industry. That’s because the new Aurora eNaaS offering builds off of Blue Pillar’s Aurora platform—announced at DistribuTECH 2016—and adds management tools required to keep behind-the-meter networks operational. It enables energy service providers, utilities and application providers to access “behind-the-meter” data and control through an application program interface (API) that simplifies processes. The new service comes with all hardware, installation and configuration required to keep a network running.
As for the reasoning behind the launch, Tom Willie, CEO of Blue Pillar, explained the idea stemmed from interaction with the company’s early customers.
“Since launching Aurora, we’ve worked closely with a number of energy service providers, application providers and utilities who are using the platform to quickly connect distributed energy resources utilizing Aurora’s software automated deployment tools and secure platform architecture,” said Willie.
He went on to explain many of these initial customers lacked the ability to “deploy, maintain, and manage” these networks, which helped fuel development of Aurora ENaaS to fill that gap.
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