Back in 2010, I built the software systems to manage solar-powered microgrids providing prepaid electricity in remote, rural offgrid communities with no internet connectivity. People could pay for the electricity service when they wanted and could, with no minimum amounts required; aside from the tech, we wanted to demonstrate a viable, sustainable business model for scaling so free electricity was not the objective.
Constraints for the software system running at the microgrid included - server hardware should not draw more than an energy-efficient bulb at peak load, cost <$100, little-no internet conn in the regions we deploy but remote access required, little-no technical capacity available locally (made things interesting for debug/updates...), integrate with meters + charge controllers + gsm modules etc each speaking potentially different protocols, allow for meter data collection every 1-3 seconds(!) and utilized in distribution + tariff accounting, etc.
Took about 3-4 months to go from concept note to first field deployment in Mali. Over the course of the next couple of years, increased robustness and features and expanded to over 20 villages in East and West Africa (Mali, Uganda). These were all villages/communities that for the first time had homes with AC-electric outlets that they used then for applications like lighting, cell charging, small fans, etc.
Back in 2010, I built the software systems to manage solar-powered microgrids providing prepaid electricity in remote, rural offgrid communities with no internet connectivity. People could pay for the electricity service when they wanted and could, with no minimum amounts required; aside from the tech, we wanted to demonstrate a viable, sustainable business model for scaling so free electricity was not the objective.
Constraints for the software system running at the microgrid included - server hardware should not draw more than an energy-efficient bulb at peak load, cost <$100, little-no internet conn in the regions we deploy but remote access required, little-no technical capacity available locally (made things interesting for debug/updates...), integrate with meters + charge controllers + gsm modules etc each speaking potentially different protocols, allow for meter data collection every 1-3 seconds(!) and utilized in distribution + tariff accounting, etc.
Took about 3-4 months to go from concept note to first field deployment in Mali. Over the course of the next couple of years, increased robustness and features and expanded to over 20 villages in East and West Africa (Mali, Uganda). These were all villages/communities that for the first time had homes with AC-electric outlets that they used then for applications like lighting, cell charging, small fans, etc.