The Challenge

Adapting to a rapidly changing grid edge. A huge wave of solar rooftops, electrical vehicles (EVs), grid-connected batteries, and smart appliances brings climate benefits, but also logistical challenges for electrical utilities. Net load fluctuates with the weather, power flows reverse direction, and planning processes strain. Without solid monitoring, control, and forecasting systems, provisioning grids for worst-case scenarios is much more expensive. So it’s increasingly difficult for utilities to provide both reliable and economical service.

Unlocking the full value of distributed energy resources. The public wants green power, but most consumers have limited options for buying it, resulting in pent-up demand. Meanwhile clean sources often receive commodity prices or worse. In particular, rooftop solar owners rarely receive much more than wholesale commodity prices for excess generation. Due to expectations of meager returns, many projects don’t get off the ground.

The Project

The Camus Energy team is building Mimo, an open source software system, which is free for distribution grid operators. Mimo serves two major functions.

First, Mimo provides a grid edge orchestrator, similar to a DERMS. Mimo uses machine learning algorithms to optimize whole ecosystems of distributed energy resources (DERs) in real time. It aligns demand with supply of intermittent renewables, and smooths load between day and night. And it highlights the grid elements at greatest risk, so operators can focus their upgrade efforts. So with Mimo, grids can remain reliable and efficient, even during transition.

Second, Mimo provides a transactive energy platform, which facilitates energy transactions via real-time localized markets. Mimo continuously matches buyers and sellers, factoring in both buyer preferences and grid constraints. Mimo also intelligently schedules certain loads (e.g. EV charging) to minimize cost and/or carbon. So with Mimo, consumers, businesses, communities, and municipalities can encourage development of green and/or local sources.

How to Help

Camus Energy seeks a partner for codevelopment of our first Mimo deployment. The ideal candidate is a distribution grid operator, who is forward thinking, employs in-house software engineers, and is motivated by either passion or impending doom. But we’re flexible.

If a big project is not an option for you, there are other ways to assist:

• Register your interest: do you want to follow our progress, or chat after our launch?
• Send us your requirements: what do you really need for grid operations?
• Describe your experience: is your existing ADMS or DERMS working well?
• Join our developer group: can you contribute to design discussions or source code?

If any of these are interesting, please don’t hesitate to email us at yo@camus.energy.