AI Energy Management

How computer systems will manage your energy costs and income

Having just installed 10.4 kw of solar panels on the house (both of us work from home so a larger unit made sense) I have had a number of questions from people about how it might all work in the future.

The key factors are:

1/ The development of electric cars which I believe will be cost competitive with fossil fuel cars by 2025 or 2026 (see:When Should a 2 Car Family Buy an Electric Car for more details).

2/ The further reduction in battery costs for home storage and the re-purposing of car batteries for home storage use (see: Re-Purposed Electric Car Batteries and Its Effects on Electric Car Adoption/Driverless Car Adoption).

3/ Developments in peer to peer trading systems such as Powledger which allows fractional ownership of solar systems and trading of energy via Blockchain technology.

4/ The massive and ongoing reduction in the installation costs for solar panels on houses (see: IRENA Report).

Reductions in the costs of batteries and the technologies being developed by Companies like Powerledger mean that it will be possible in the future for a group of houses to choose the best houses out of the group to have solar panels on their roofs. This includes which way the roofs are orientated, the size of roofs, etc. If 50 houses needed 5kw each but 12 of those houses could have 22kw systems installed then it makes more sense to install 12 systems rather than 50. The same logic applies to the battery systems. Higher scale installations have lower costs per kw of installed panels and inverter systems. More houses with the most efficient roof profiles will generate energy more efficiently. Both those factors reduce the costs of generating energy. Each house owner would only 2% of each of the systems via a Blockchain system that can be traded the same way as shares. The energy generated would be allocated equally across all households. Of course some could own more and some could own less depending on their needs and their available capital. The energy would be traded over the grid.

So in perhaps 8 years time this is what the system looks like:

1/ The computer system that controls your shareholding in the group energy system will know the weather forecasts. From the weather forecasts it will be able to predict your energy consumption based on historical data, access to the family calendars (to know who is home and who is not), whether it is a work day or a weekend,and estimate the solar energy production over the next few days.

2/ It will also predict what the likely energy prices might be in the forecast weather pattern depending on work days or week days.

3/ It will also know how much energy is stored in the car battery you have in your car. Access to diaries means that it can predict car use, and therefore energy required.

4/ It also knows how much energy is in the shared battery system between all the houses.

Using all that data it will be able to trade your energy with the grid depending on demand and our risk profile. It will know when to charge your car at the least possible cost to meet your travel requirements It will also be able to ask you if you want to turn off the air conditioning, or the washing machine to sell some energy during a high price period. Or you can pre-set those things to happen if the price spikes.

Your costs will be minimised, your income maximised, and you will not have to worry about any of the actions. It will all be done for you.

I for one cannot wait.