This modBESS premier product currently undergoing development and testing is a version of H2Optimizer specifically designed to manage private homes and small businesses. Unlike H2Optimizer that focused on water pumps and storage ponds, HomeOptimizer focuses on the integration of solar systems, load management, batteries and EV charging. The goals of HomeOptimizer are quite varied and are easily customized for specific user needs and wishes.
HomeOptimizer is a modular system with integrated {AI, machine learning} capabilities that can do as little or as much as a customer may want in terms of sophistication. As seen in our project on “a Small California Home”, in some cases all that is needed is a good design and a fixed schedule. In other cases, a more elaborate set of controls are called for.
Among the features and modules of HomeOptimizer are:
- Operate battery charging and discharging to maximize the benefit to the customer of their own local rate structure.
- This is accomplished by managing the minimum and maximum charge levels of the battery as well as the rates of charge of the same when feasible.
- Operate the battery to reduce the impact on the consumer of possible grid outages.
- Intelligently and automatically switch between prioritizing one or other of the above two actions which are often mutually contradictory, according to specific homeowner desires.
- Operate controls and breakers within the customer’s residence to disconnect non-essential equipment as necessary to:
- Maximize battery charging when conditions indicate an unanticipated outage is likely
- During outages reserve battery energy for essential loads
- When feasible, dynamically adjust the charging times of EVs.
- A localized production prediction module capable of anticipating solar or other renewable production over the next day or two to help refine the battery controls in accordance with the twin priorities of economy and reliability
- A localized weather and outage probability module, that will intelligently assess the probability of an outage and adjust the battery and other controls to minimize the impact on critical loads of an increased expectation of loss of grid power.
- A utility-interaction module that works with signals from a utility to reduce or increase demand as necessary. Clearly, for such an undertaking to be useful, it needs to be part of a mutually beneficial rate structure and the appropriate communication hardware needs to be installed. Such systems only make sense if many such customers are “aggregated” but are being implemented in certain locales already.
A key feature of this product is the smart local environment monitoring and actioning using sophisticated AI to evaluate weather and solar reports as well as local emergency channel reports in prioritizing economics and reliability.
