eSmart Systems
Smarter Energy Grids on Azure

The future of a modern enterprise is majorly defined by one factor: The speed at which they can achieve valuable results in the market. In an urgency to accomplish this, enterprises often run the risk of compromising their IT and development strategy using self-made, non-scalable functions and unstable third-party libraries. “Such measures will have heavy implications for the enterprises, especially for those who operate in the energy industry,” says Knut Johansen, CEO of eSmart Systems. “These companies can’t afford the cost and downtime of big infrastructure upgrades,” he adds. eSmartSystems recognizes the importance of avoiding such pitfalls and offers automated energy management systems based on Microsoft cloud services and Microsoft Machine Learning tools. The company’s next-generation smart-grid software improves efficiency by monitoring current quality, and detecting and preventing grid or component failures. By helping clients in streamlining their energy systems, eSmart Systems creates power grids with optimal response and flexibility.The firm achieves this by consolidating the information received from sensors, smart meters, and software to forecast consumption, and reduce outages.

The automated demand response solution from eSmart Systems uses predictive models to forecast potential capacity problems and automatically control the power load to prevent outages. The solution provides short-term and long term forecasts and offers a centralized hub to monitor and manage the entire grid. “Our Azure-based platform, that runs on top of all the client’s systems running in a power grid, helps connect data streams from multiple sources and provide grid managers with a single user interface for all of their monitoring tasks,” says Johansen. eSmart’s platform services are augmented with predictive analytics and mobile connectivity to incorporate trends like big data, mobility, cloud services, and social networking into the client’s infrastructures.

“The disruptive data platform we built for the energy industry has lever¬aged nearly all the Platform Services that Microsoft Azure of¬fers,” says Johansen. By basing their entire portfolio on the Az¬ure Platform as a Service, eSmart Systems avoids the time spent in upgrading and maintaining their servers and focuses more on creating business value to energy management.

Ringeriks-Kraft, one of Norway’s leading smart-meter companies is one among many clients benefitted by the solutions offered by eSmart Systems. The company helped Ringeriks-Kraft to map the operational characteristics and consumption volumes for each of its 21,000 meter points.

Using eSmart’s Connected Grid energy management system, Ringeriks-Kraft now knows actual market consumption and power output to reduce their need forgrid capacity expansion. The solution helped Ringeriks-Kraft save investment costs associated with building and running new substations along with cutting the expenses by $250,000 to $550,000 every year or $12 to $26 per meter point. The solution is fully scalable and runs with the same performance independent of the number of meter points (from some thousands to several millions) due to Azure and the Big Data Real time Analytics system architecture.

With such impactful solutions, strategies to deliver complete, cost-effective, and relevant solutions, eSmart Solutions helps utility companies stay ahead of the competition. “Our key differentiators include the cloud-based solution and big data capability that is coupled with analytics and machine learning,” says Johansen. These services translate into optimized operational caliber for customers of eSmart Systems.

Our Azure-based platform, that runs on top of all the client’s systems running in a power grid, helps connect data streams from multiple sources and provide grid managers with a single user interface for all of their monitoring tasks

For the future, eSmartSystems plans to establish a solid market foundation in the Nordic region. The firm also has their eyes set on expanding its presence into the Europe and the U.S. “The roadmap into Europe and U.S. is slated for the second half of 2015 and we will achieve it together with our innovative strategies and support from our partners,” concludes Johansen.