An entire town’s energy supply – managed intelligently by software that recognizes usual consumption patterns and knows where energy is created and stored. sounds like science fiction? It is not. BYD, the leading manufacturer of e-cars and electronics, and the german company Dreams in Motion have developed this solution. Thanks to the Microsoft Azure Cloud and reliable encryption via the eperi Gateway, Germany can now take the next step towards transforming its energy sector – while its data is completely secured.

Transforming the energy production from fossil and nuclear fuels to renewable sources is one of the main challenges of this decade. It requires linked and intelligent energy management. Where is energy produced, where is it being used? How much has to be stored to prevent black-outs at night or during peak hours? Intelligent energy management systems are the answer. They recognize context, like sunlight intensity, wind force or typical patterns of energy consumption, and manage energy production and storage autonomously. If these solutions are used in a cloud environment, they become scalable and can not only manage energy inside a single building, but also an entire city.

Welcome to the Future

BYD and Dreams in Motion have created such an Internet of Things based solution. The terabytes of data collected by BYD products every day are being processed by Dreams in Motion’s “metering-cloud.de” platform. The result: solar panels, batteries and e-cars communicate with each other. This way, your own house decides whether to charge the car, store energy for an evening in front of the TV or sell it at the national energy exchange.

This solution is hosted in the Microsoft German Cloud – which makes it scalable. This way, instead of a single house, an entire business park or a city can be managed intelligently. A single challenge remains: data protection. In Germany, the energy market is highly regulated – for good reasons.

What Your Energy Consumption Tells Others About You

What many do not know: Energy consumption data is highly sensitive. Every device has a unique energy signature. Criminals stealing energy consumption data from companies or citizens can not only plan burglaries based on their targets daily routine, they can also conduct industrial espionage. Therefore, a reliable encryption is not only legally required, but in every modern energy user’s own interest.

For BYD, Dreams in Motion and Microsoft the solution was clear: the eperi Gateway offers the perfect mix of secure, reliable encryption and easy usage. It encrypts energy data before it is stored in the cloud. This secures customers two-fold: Even databank administrators cannot read their information and even in case of a data theft, the attackers cannot decrypt the data. The customer does not need to change anything – he uses the same applications as always.

eperi Encryption Enables Modern Cloud Solutions

Microsoft has now published a case study video about this project, in which the partners explain the concept. “This project is very important to us. It is about our future, clean energy and the next level of smart energy management. eperi provides the basis: a solid Open Source encryption that users can trust and that can be tested by everyone”, explains Elmar Eperiesi-Beck, CEO of eperi GmbH. “Many users are afraid of the cloud’s risks and therefore do not use the best modern software solutions. We want to alleviate this fear by providing the best encryption. This is our contribution to technological progress.”