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How Avant Power's OptiGrid Cloud turns a microgrid into active energy management
OptiGrid Cloud, built on the SADE Booster IoT Asset, optimizes batteries, local generation and electricity purchases — and can sell spare capacity on the electricity markets.
Avant Power
Customer context
Avant Power, an energy technology company based in Ylöjärvi, Finland, builds sites where renewable energy, batteries and EV and e-truck charging share a DC microgrid. A cloud-connected fleet lets the same batteries earn on the electricity markets.
Avant Power moves from battery technology to complete energy management: one cloud service optimizes batteries, local generation and electricity purchases, and sells spare capacity on the electricity markets. OptiGrid microgrid brings local energy generation, battery storage, consumption and control together into one integrated energy system, and at its core is OptiGrid Cloud, a cloud-based service developed in close collaboration with SADE and built on the SADE Booster IoT Asset.
OptiGrid is designed for a wide range of sites: service stations and vehicle depots, industrial facilities, commercial properties, logistics centers, farms, and urban and residential environments. Energy independence and a reliable power supply are also particularly important in defence applications.
What the solution gives each group
Site owners
A reliable power supply, lower energy costs and a new revenue stream: the same batteries earn on reserve markets, with no extra hardware.
Charging operators
Peak shaving lets high-power EV and e-truck charging run on a smaller, cheaper grid connection.
Electricity grid
Distributed batteries offer reserve capacity automatically to Fingrid’s reserve markets (FCR-N, FCR-D, and aFRR), and take part in the spot market.
Avant Power
One cloud instance manages any number of sites, with no added headcount. Operators follow all sites and market participation in one web UI.
- Booster Cloud
- Cloud EMS for a battery and DC microgrid fleet
- Edge Node and OPC-UA integration
- Electricity market integrations
- Web UI for operators
The full storyThe challenge · The SADE approach · Technology · Business outcome
The challenge
Electricity demand is growing as industries electrify and EV charging expands, but grid capacity cannot always keep up, and a bigger grid connection is not always possible or economical. Avant Power needed a cloud service for its OptiGrid microgrids: to monitor, control and optimize distributed batteries from one place, to keep every site running even when the cloud is unavailable, and to take the batteries to the electricity markets automatically.
Why the obvious solution was not enough
A battery system alone does not manage energy. Smart control needs electricity prices, weather forecasts and consumption history, a link to the local PLC control, and integrations to Fingrid's reserve markets and the spot market. It also has to scale: adding sites should not mean operational resources growing at the same rate.
The SADE approach
Avant Power is responsible for the overall OptiGrid solution: battery systems, power electronics, local PLC control, and the optimization and planning algorithms. SADE brought cloud, IoT, edge computing and software development, with the ready-made building blocks of the SADE Booster IoT Asset as the foundation of OptiGrid Cloud. That let Avant Power focus on its core strengths in energy systems and their optimization.
Technology and delivery
- SADE Booster IoT Asset as the technological foundation of the cloud service
- Cloud EMS: a cloud-based Energy Management System for centralized monitoring, control and optimization of distributed battery storage systems and microgrids
- Edge Node and OPC-UA integration to Avant Power's PLC-based control system; the microgrid keeps operating even when the cloud connection is unavailable
- Electricity market integrations: Fingrid's reserve markets (FCR-N, FCR-D and aFRR) and the electricity spot markets, for automated market participation
- Energy management that uses electricity prices, weather forecasts and historical consumption to predict demand and optimize energy use
- Web UI for Avant Power's operators to monitor different sites and manage participation in the electricity markets
Business outcome
- Active energy management: batteries, local solar power and electricity purchases are optimized, with purchases timed to lower-price hours
- Peak shaving enables high-power EV charging with a smaller grid connection
- A reliable power supply, better energy resilience and lower energy costs
- Spare capacity can be used on the electricity markets, a new revenue stream
- One cloud service manages multiple sites without operational resources growing at the same rate
What happens next
OptiGrid Cloud is the first commercial phase of Avant Power's broader OptiGrid microgrid system. The modular solution can be expanded with additional energy storage, generation solutions and applications as needs evolve. OptiGrid's optimization technology is also planned for Avant Power's collaboration with Kempower, combining energy storage with high-power EV charging.
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