An educational simulator to understand the concept of energy flexibility
During the summer of 2014, we worked with a team of researchers and designers at EDF R&D on a project around an educational simulator. This project was intended to introduce the concept of energy flexibility and explain how it can potentially make our energy consumption more sustainable.
TURNING CONSUMERS INTO CONSCIOUS ENERGY MANAGEMENT STAKEHOLDERS
Energy is a fast-changing sector. The development of renewable energies, along with the development of smart grids, is changing our traditional model. We are moving away from a centralized, one-way structure, towards a more local energy management system, down to the individual scale and based on decentralized production modes.
In this new model, the consumer, either a citizen or an economic player, is invited to play a much more active role. Learning thermostats (such as Nest) and smart meters, help optimize electricity consumption on a daily basis. Besides, domestic batteries, such as the prominent Tesla PowerWall, enable to store energy that consumers can use when they please.
Those new technologies have brought along a variety of expectations, such as being able to compare home appliances, lower bills while not compromising on comfort, reduce load curves or soften environment impact… However, fulfilling those expectations requires a robust technical knowledge. For the general public, the subject is all the more difficult to understand as electricity is a phenomenon which is by nature invisible, and tricky to conceptualize. Not to mention that the relevant information is mostly available in a data form, which is difficult to decipher.
Nonetheless, the sustainability of our electricity system depends on our ability to better control the demand side. Sustainability thus requires a broader awareness of those new devices, and of the level of flexibility they can bring to networks.
In this context, how can citizens be empowered to be involved in these new smart systems? How can they gain the capacity to better understand, and thus better manage their electricity consumption?
The need for a better mediation between data and users is particularly anticipated. To ensure an educational approach, and make new intelligent devices easier to use, people need interfaces that extract meaning from the data and make that data both usable and useful.
This was the beginning of our data visualization project, conducted in collaboration with EDF R&D. The below use case shows how we built a visual and interactive application to place users into a situation where they can manage energy flexibility.
BEYOND AWARENESS, AN ACTIVE UNDERSTANDING OF THE DATA
The concept of energy flexibility refers to the ability of our domestic electrical installations to modulate their consumption during the day. This way, they can lower their consumption during peak hours or smooth out consumption peaks to put less pressure on the global network. (A more detailed explanation of this concept will be provided later on in this case study.)
This concept of energy flexibility is particularly interesting in light of the above introduction, precisely because it allows citizens to make better decisions and control their appliances, which leads to a more sustainable consumption. In other words, energy flexibility is one way to empower consumers.
Our contacts at EDF R&D wanted to propose an educational demonstration of this concept, based on simulation data and a model of the electricity consumption across houses.
From the beginning, it was anticipated that the application could be integrated into a very large screen in EDF showrooms, and appeal to a a variety of visitors, from energy professionals, decision makers and opinion leaders.
We analyzed how such an application could mobilize the understanding of the showroom visitors, in a way that encourages them to take action, and does not simply raise awareness. To do this, we executed a data visualization application that allows visitors to understand the concept of flexibility for various home appliances and configurations. Users can compare the effects of flexibility through values such as level of electricity consumption, temperature or cost of bills.
Within this application, we created an experience articulated on three axes, to place the user in an active position:
- Active understanding, with an « explorable explanation » approach in mind.
- Enhanced interactivity via a visualization operable from a smartphone.
- Playful dimension, based on a collaboration mode
1 — FEELING, RATHER THAN ASSIMILATING: THE EXPLORABLE EXPLANATIONS
The concept of « explorable explanation » was introduced by Bret Victor to describe a series of experiments around active reading and reactive texts.
According to Bret Victor, an active player possesses the ability to interrogate the text, consider various assumptions, question the coherence and reliability of the content, rather than passively assimilate information.
Victor observes that the typical format of explanatory content — articles, books, reports, etc. — rarely encourages such critical thinking, and often merely presents the arguments of the author.
Bret Victor expresses the wish that those content types do not convey information for mere consumption, but rather prove thought-provoking, and lead readers to think further, thus placing them in an active position.
« A reactive document allows the reader to play with the author’s assumptions and analyses, and see the consequences. »
Explorable Explanations / Bret Victor / March 10, 2011
Bret Victor presents various examples where interactivity, coupled with modeling and data, leads the reader to a more stimulating and intuitive understanding of physical, economic, or mathematical phenomenon.
Bret Victor’s « explorable examples » aim to bring readers to experience first hand complex models by playing with sliders, altering key figures or observing recurring patterns.
« An explorable example makes the abstract concrete, and allows the reader to develop an intuition for how a system works. »
Explorable Explanations / Bret Victor / March 10, 2011
Other people, in addition to Bret Victor recently embraced a similar approach, in order to create highly compelling educational scenarios. Here is an example of an « explorable explanation », conducted by Bret Victor.
To conceive an educational application about energy flexibility, we experienced the same need to mix text, interactivity features and data visualization to allow users to understand a complicated concept.
In the section below, we attempt to reproduce a short part of the demonstration implemented in the final simulator.
Let us start with a very simple principle: it is complicated to store electricity on a large scale.
Therefore, it is necessary to balance at all times the supply and demand on the French power grid, nationally and locally.
This balance is tricky to obtain:
- From the demand side, we collectively tend to consume electricity at the same times: in the morning before going to work, in the evening as we come home, on those very cold winter days, etc. The demand for electricity in France is thus characterized by strong variations which follow the seasons and hours of the day.
- From the supply side, however, it is very costly to vary the production capacity in such proportions. Nuclear plants cannot easily adjust their pace of production, and renewable energy (solar, wind, etc.) are by nature irregular.
Electricity consumption levels in France, every 30 minutes, in 2013:
The difficulty to instantly adjust supply and demand creates episodes of stress on the global electricity network. Those episodes are a source of risk and extra cost to all parts involved in the electricity system, producers and consumers alike.
For a long time, only the supply side was expected to adjust to the consumption peaks. Today, new technologies introduce a possibility for the demand side to be flexible as well. This can help reach a more stable balance and a smarter control of the national energy network as a whole.
It is very simple to schedule the running time of a washing-machine or a dishwasher, so that they consume electricity outside of the peak hours. However, it is not as trivial for heaters, air conditioning systems or water heaters, as interrupting them for too long would impact the comfort of a home.
The concept of energy flexibility can be better understood here: it describes flexible electrical systems able to regulate consumption levels depending on the times of the day, without ever altering comfort.
Flexible electrical systems thus have the ability to erase consumption during certain hours of the day, (i.e. by postponing consumption, or smoothing it out over time) without inhabitants perceiving any difference in the room or the water temperature.
All the heaters and air conditioning systems do not have the same flexibility capacity, as it depends on their underlying technology. A heat pump or micro-storage heater will likely be more flexible than a convection heater, in most homes.
The objective is to facilitate a better balance between production and consumption of power across the entire network. From the perspective of a consumer citizen, the goal is simple: run the heater or air conditioning device in the way that limits consumption during the peak hours as much as possible, without altering comfort.
Now, we can only imagine how things could look like if this adjustment mechanism could be automatically managed by those smart regulators bound to be increasingly present in our homes… This scenario helps perceive the interest of the energy flexibility concept, and its formidable potential to enable a better balance of the electrical network.
2 — COUPLE THE MOBILE PHONE WITH THE BIG SCREEN FOR MORE TANGIBLE INTERACTIONS
We tailored this demonstration to fit the specific context of the project executed for EDF R&D:
- The project was meant to be accessible as part of a showroom, where the visual attention of visitors would already be stretched. This would result in visitors having little time to read lengthy explanations.
- The project was meant to provide support for oral presentations to an audience of experts, decision makers and opinion leaders.
We therefore strengthened the visual and interactive dimension of this demonstration, to turn it into a captivating and entertaining application:
- We rolled up the load curves to make the main graphic look like a clock.
- We refined the illustrations to give a familiar feel to the application.
We chose to move the interaction points away from the big screen, onto the visitors’ or the presenter’s smartphones. Thanks to a pairing technology, users can take control over the big screen with the help of their smartphones.The smartphone interface thus acts a remote to select items or interact with the data visualizations displayed on the big screen. The interface on the big screen allows a large number of users to observe the visual representations and enjoy the explanations.
Visitors of the EDF R&D showroom can alter the information displayed on the bigscreen by moving the slider on the smartphone.
The pairing system is based on the WebSocket technology that enables bi-directional communications between a browser and a webin server. An node.js server orchestrates synchronization between the phone and the big screen. In order for them to communicate together, all devices are connected to the same wifi network.
This contactless interaction technology entices visitors to strongly engage with the installation, and makes it a highlight of their showroom visit.
3 — FROM GAMIFICATION TO EMPOWERMENT
A final lever enabled us to further establish the role of the user as an active player: the collaborative game.
The application includes a multiplayer mode in which several participants interact on the big screen. Together, using their smartphone, they take control over a small village and attempt to improve its electricity consumption.
The playful feel of this section, combined with the fact that it leads people to work collaboratively, reinforces the educational role of the project.
Each player can make their selection vary on their phone, to update the information displayed on the big screen.
After four months of work involving researchers, designers and developers, this application demonstrates that through three levers: the game, the visualization and the physical interaction, a large audience can understand complicated phenomenons and become players making better energy choices.
WATCH THE VIDEO
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