The AI based software to control the photovoltaic production from the satellite
Company/Organisation: Nectaware
Company description
Nectaware designs, develops, distributes, delivers, and maintains advanced AI forecasting and monitoring solutions for the energy transition.
Nectaware has developed a cloud based, web responsive, AI multi-forecasting and monitoring platform backed by machine learning analysis models and algorithms.
The platform created by Nectaware, thanks to the newly created software ‘LUCY’ (‘Let. Us. Connect. You’) provides users the control of any existing PV plants’ historic, real-time and forecasted generation and avoided CO2 and CH4 plus the single/aggregated consumption forecast, opening unlimited energy market solutions that can disruptively change the way to manage energy production and generation for a modern and decentralized smart grid and smart cities for Municipalities, Grid Operators, Utilities, Investors.
Nectaware objectives and the circular economy
The objective of Nectaware satellite analysis systems is to develop methods, tools and actions to contribute to the achievement of climate neutrality in cities, which can translate into significant collateral benefits and improvements in the quality of urban life. These include reduced air and noise pollution, improved health and well-being, decreased urban environmental impact, increased urban impact, green spaces.
The global energy sector is undergoing an unprecedented transformation to reduce carbon emissions. The so-called energy transition presents some of the most formidable challenges that the energy sector has ever faced, requiring a paradigm shift involving different actors, regulatory aspects, economic drivers, social and environmental aspects. At the heart of this transition is the adoption of an integrated energy system to produce, distribute, store and convert energy efficiently to enable the exploitation of renewable energy resources and smart energy infrastructure, with a twofold objective: globally optimize the integrated energy system and each individual process.
At the basis of the transition process there is therefore the need to have a clear understanding of the status quo, with quantitative information and detailed data on the various areas of analysis of the factors that can affect the transformation of resources and the behavior of the main players in the transition, among including producers, citizens, municipalities and therefore both public and private actors.
The traditional analysis methods for identifying the tools to intervene on climate change and energy transition are outdated and are still based on the paradigms of a linear energy society, where energy production and consumption are two distinct worlds so that greenhouse gas emissions derive only from relationship with any human activity. Actions and measures to contain the effects of GHG emissions are therefore often evaluated only in terms of energy efficiency and sustainable transport or greening, but they do not always take into account the evolution that society in an urban context is going towards a proactive relationship with energy production and the energy grid.
This complex scenario requires adequate tools to support decisions, which must take into consideration the interdependence of multiple systems at the local level and in smart cities and the possibility, on the one hand, of being able to measure the presence of renewables presence in cities and of work that these perform in terms of energy not produced from fossil sources and therefore of CO2 avoided, and at the same time the possibility of tracing in a clear, predictable and monitorable way, the development of the resources necessary for carbon neutrality represents one of the enabling tools and technologies that the more they will be able to mark the difference between current and future strategies for the development of policies to contain and balance emissions.
On the other hand, European electricity market operators are facing new challenges to maintain grid stability, due to increase penetration of intermittent or variable renewable power, the introduction of less predictable consumptions (e.g. electric vehicles, extreme climate phenomena etc.) and distributed generation. As a result, power markets are forced to establish capacity mechanisms (CM) for reducing unbalancing through back-up power services to ensure grid flexibility and cope with unpredictable generation and demand. The costs related to CMs amounted to more than 2 billion euros in Europe in 2017, and they are becoming a noticeable share of wholesale energy prices.
Description of the service
Nectaware designs, develops, distributes, delivers, and maintains advanced AI forecasting and monitoring solutions for the energy transition.
Nectaware has developed a cloud based, web responsive, AI multi-forecasting and monitoring platform backed by machine learning analysis models and algorithms.
The platform created by Nectaware, thanks to the newly created software ‘LUCY’ (‘Let. Us. Connect. You’) provides users the control of any existing PV plants’ real-time and forecasted generation together with single/aggregated consumption, opening unlimited energy market solutions that can disruptively change the way to manage energy production and generation for a modern and decentralized smart grid for Grid Operators, Utilities, Investors, Pro-sumers etc.
A SaaS service supplied to customers/users that will allow them to access the following information:
Real-time generation of each of the photovoltaic plants of the analyzed territory, up to three days ahead forecast of the same plants’ generation, and Due diligence of the generation of up to 5 years before.
Thanks to LUCY, Italy is the first Country that may have access and control at one glance and monitor the entire photovoltaic installed capacity (more than 900,000 PV plants under simultaneous control).
Innovation with respect to what is available in the market
A software, enabling energy market players to access information over the generation of every single panel installed, represents a technological advance never reached before due to the combination of a strong artificial Intelligence experience and modelling analysis to highly dense satellite images. Nectaware experience and background in the energy sector motivated the research of satellite solutions and downstream application of EO images. The success in finding specific objects such as a PV panel using super dense satellite images and its potential applications justify the need to verify the different potential thresholds of success that can be targeted with different densities of available pixels.
On the other hand, the ‘Ground Net Radiation’ model (‘GNR’) developed by Nectaware using Meteosat MSG updated clouds evolution images, that almost equals the most representative analysis model PVGIS represents itself a new service with unlimited application and uses provided a new massive deployment of the photovoltaic is expected for reaching new energy autonomy. This is proved by the fact that Nectaware’ technology has been already adopted by the Italian Authority (GSE ‘Gestore dei Servizi Energetici’) as the official technology used to provide public authorities with EO data for new areas for PV installation.
Market Analysis
Our service is addressing the sector of SAS services of mapping PV plants over the territory and monitoring historic, real-time, and forecast PV generation.
The EU market is composed of
Municipalities (global) committed to become carbon neutral (10.000 in EU) 112 in the short term 50/100 k euro per city: Tot. 500.000 k €
Grid Operators (44 TSOs and 2500 DSOs in EU)
TSOs potential contract value = up to 500 k plus maintenance fee
DSOs potential contract value = up to 50 k plus maintenance fee (10% are controlling 90% of the distribution system): TOT: 200.000 k€
Market Operators (sellers and Traders are up to 10,000 unit in EU and 10% might be prudentially considered interested)
Traders: potential contract value = up to 30 k plus maintenance fee
Tot: 200.000 k€
Public Authorities and International/National Organisation (20 unit in EU)
Public Authorities and Organizations: potential contract value = up to 50 k plus maintenance fee
Tot. 2.000 k€
Others: Recharging station installers, Real Estate Funds, PV Developers etc…. Tot. 2.000 k€
The Total Potential Market for the EU of the targeted service is therefore the following: 904.000 k€