WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:07.480 Okay, we can start a minute early. 00:07.480 --> 00:14.640 Bobby will talk about the aqueductor, that's home energy management system, that's open 00:14.640 --> 00:19.320 source and you can use that your home by yourself instead of buying that. 00:19.320 --> 00:21.800 Thank you, Bobby for presenting. 00:21.800 --> 00:22.800 Have fun. 00:22.800 --> 00:23.800 Okay. 00:23.800 --> 00:24.800 Hello, everybody. 00:24.800 --> 00:29.400 Thank you for coming to my talk about the energy optimization system, it's not an 00:29.440 --> 00:34.680 automation, but an optimization system called aqueductor US. 00:34.680 --> 00:36.120 My name is Bobby Nelten. 00:36.120 --> 00:39.960 I'm one of the developers of US. 00:39.960 --> 00:43.560 This is my first time to foster them and also my first time to talk about the 00:43.560 --> 00:44.560 US. 00:44.560 --> 00:49.200 So I'm really excited and what to thank the first team and do the audience for 00:49.200 --> 00:51.320 this opportunity. 00:51.320 --> 00:56.760 I'm also a little bit nervous, so I tend to become the loud when I'm nervous. 00:56.760 --> 01:03.160 Yeah, so please stop me if I'm too loud and blowing your ears away. 01:03.160 --> 01:05.440 So what is aqueductor US? 01:05.440 --> 01:10.360 Aqueductor US is a self-hosted energy optimization server. 01:10.360 --> 01:16.760 It creates optimal operating schedules for your batteries, electric vehicles and household 01:16.760 --> 01:17.760 devices. 01:17.760 --> 01:23.720 So it's the little thing from the big thing that we saw before, so it's a lot of stimulation 01:23.720 --> 01:27.400 to be in the household. 01:27.400 --> 01:31.040 Yes, runs entirely on your own hardware. 01:31.040 --> 01:36.000 It's not, if you do not need the cloud connection and it's not required, it's also not 01:36.000 --> 01:37.000 desired. 01:37.000 --> 01:41.160 US builds energy plans based on three key inputs. 01:41.160 --> 01:46.080 Your system configuration measurement data from your devices and forecasts that are 01:46.080 --> 01:49.760 taken from the internet or generated locally. 01:49.760 --> 01:55.680 The workflow is simple, first you describe the configuration, then US runs its optimization 01:55.680 --> 02:04.400 regularly using the current system state, energy prices, demands and forecasts and it then 02:04.400 --> 02:07.640 generates the optimal energy plan. 02:07.640 --> 02:12.840 Finally, your home automation system is executing the plan. 02:12.840 --> 02:20.920 In short, the US is like a strategic brain for your energy system, turning data and forecast 02:20.920 --> 02:27.400 into optimization instructions. 02:27.400 --> 02:28.400 Who made it? 02:28.400 --> 02:35.040 Yes, was founded by Andreas called the aqueductor and Andreas is a researcher in mathematical 02:35.040 --> 02:42.600 optimization and in artificial intelligence and he has also got his own YouTube channel. 02:42.600 --> 02:47.680 He created the first version of aqueductor US. 02:47.680 --> 02:50.440 It's still quite young. 02:50.440 --> 02:55.000 We went public in September 2024, so just one year. 02:55.000 --> 03:02.320 Country, we are a small community, but we have no several active users and more or less constant 03:02.320 --> 03:03.320 flow of commits. 03:03.320 --> 03:09.280 You see, a lot of people helped to improve it and to make it like it is now. 03:09.280 --> 03:14.640 I also want to thank them for this. 03:14.640 --> 03:18.560 What can you do with aqueductor US an example? 03:18.560 --> 03:25.760 Andreas, the founder of US invested in his personal shift from fossil energy to regenerative 03:25.760 --> 03:32.640 for renewable energy as a DIY maker even purchase home storage battery. 03:32.640 --> 03:35.640 We can see it in his videos. 03:35.680 --> 03:38.920 He also installed his own PV system. 03:38.920 --> 03:45.040 This was a big investment and it feels good if you can do something about climate change, 03:45.040 --> 03:48.800 but some of you still have to afford it. 03:48.800 --> 03:50.280 So his goal was clear. 03:50.280 --> 03:55.320 He wanted to create a better future but want to add a minimum of costs. 03:55.320 --> 04:02.480 So, or maybe earn some money with the tools and the assets that he will build it. 04:02.480 --> 04:07.840 To achieve this, he needed to schedule his energy consumption. 04:07.840 --> 04:14.520 The grip exports have to fit to his goal and also the import for sure. 04:14.520 --> 04:21.720 So in the end, or also Andreas uses dynamic electricity tariffs, so these tariffs change 04:21.720 --> 04:24.880 every 15 minutes. 04:24.880 --> 04:31.720 Both for importing power from the grid, also for exporting, for example, excess solar energy. 04:31.760 --> 04:35.600 The prices are published one day in advance. 04:35.600 --> 04:38.840 So in this case, you face a real challenge. 04:38.840 --> 04:42.200 You have been showed, for example, your car. 04:42.200 --> 04:47.480 When showed your car, your discharge, your home battery. 04:47.480 --> 04:54.400 To find an optimal schedule for minimizing costs becomes really complex and maybe time 04:54.400 --> 04:55.400 consuming. 04:55.400 --> 05:00.760 So in the end, maybe it's impossible to do it manually. 05:00.800 --> 05:06.880 In the end, this is a complex optimization task and Andreas is a researcher in mathematical 05:06.880 --> 05:10.280 optimization. 05:10.280 --> 05:21.000 To automate this optimization, Andreas built EOS and uses EOS and also another tool called 05:21.000 --> 05:23.560 Node Rat and Grafana. 05:23.560 --> 05:31.280 In the end, in 2024, by using EOS and all the optimization that is providing the use, 05:31.280 --> 05:37.480 reduce the average electricity price from 36 percent per kilowatt hour to 31 percent per 05:37.480 --> 05:38.480 kilowatt hour. 05:38.480 --> 05:44.160 So a reduction around 30 percent, just by using this tool and scheduling the different 05:44.160 --> 05:48.640 asset at the right time. 05:48.640 --> 05:53.920 In energy management system typically work at least in two different timescays, each 05:53.920 --> 05:57.000 with different types of decisions. 05:57.000 --> 06:00.320 Short-term decisions happen in minutes or seconds. 06:00.320 --> 06:03.760 They are usually reactive and local. 06:03.760 --> 06:09.400 The system directly responds to what is happening right now. 06:09.400 --> 06:12.000 One example is PVCER plus charging. 06:12.000 --> 06:19.760 You charge the battery only with the excess solar energy that is available right now. 06:19.760 --> 06:28.600 The other time horizon relates to long-term decisions, these are strategic and not reactive. 06:28.600 --> 06:35.280 The problems have or these problems have two key features, they are non-linear, energy 06:35.280 --> 06:37.800 doesn't always value the same. 06:37.800 --> 06:44.520 The kilowatt hour store in your battery right now may be cheap, but later on may value 06:44.520 --> 06:50.680 a lot more depending on the future prices of energy on the demand and so on. 06:50.680 --> 06:53.120 The problems are time-coupled. 06:53.120 --> 06:55.880 Today's decision affects the most options. 06:55.880 --> 07:03.320 So if you spend or if you use the battery today, the energy is gone. 07:03.320 --> 07:09.920 But if you keep it, you may be flexible for the future but lose the benefit at the current 07:09.920 --> 07:12.400 moment. 07:12.400 --> 07:17.840 This means we must think about forecast, trends and uncertainty. 07:17.840 --> 07:21.600 The question is always, when should we use stored energy? 07:21.600 --> 07:25.840 Should we act now or maybe later, it may be a benefit to act later. 07:25.840 --> 07:31.640 So this is a typical optimization problem, not a simple control problem. 07:31.640 --> 07:36.120 So we are on another time horizon. 07:36.120 --> 07:46.640 And your ass is definitely a long-term energy planning tool and only long-term energy planning. 07:46.640 --> 07:49.640 It keeps the separate from the short-term control. 07:49.640 --> 07:54.200 Yes, doesn't control devices directly. 07:54.200 --> 07:59.200 Instead it tells the home automation system that device operation modes and the energy 07:59.200 --> 08:01.440 budgets for the current hour. 08:01.440 --> 08:07.840 Yes, they've watched what should happen over time and the home automation system decides 08:07.840 --> 08:09.760 how to make it happen in real time. 08:09.760 --> 08:12.320 So there's a real difference and work. 08:12.320 --> 08:14.880 The separation is by design. 08:14.880 --> 08:20.640 Each layer focuses on what it can do best, keeping both systems in our view simple and 08:20.640 --> 08:27.240 effective, and in our view this makes a perfect fit to bring these two together. 08:28.120 --> 08:34.120 U.S. uses a genetic algorithm to create an optimized energy plan. 08:34.120 --> 08:42.720 The genetic algorithm creates many candidate energy plans in the 100 or 1000. 08:42.720 --> 08:46.400 Each plan represents a different strategy. 08:46.400 --> 08:54.640 When to charge, this charge went to export import, both prices and so on. 08:54.640 --> 09:01.280 The plans are not executed immediately, but they're handed over to simulations. 09:01.280 --> 09:06.440 The simulation also needs to see it here, some forecasts, some weather forecasts, 09:06.440 --> 09:10.480 devils, production forecasts, and so on. 09:10.480 --> 09:14.200 And then they simulate what will happen. 09:14.200 --> 09:19.000 The simulation really answers the simple questions if you follow this plan, what will happen? 09:19.000 --> 09:26.720 In the end, we know the fitness, the costs that will displan produce. 09:26.720 --> 09:31.920 U.S. then compares to the results of all these different plans, select the optimal energy plan 09:31.920 --> 09:39.120 and only this one is handed over to the home automation system to be executed. 09:39.120 --> 09:45.720 So in short, U.S. optimizes energy management by simulating futures, not by reacting 09:45.760 --> 09:49.640 to the current situation. 09:49.640 --> 09:56.960 And the simulation is also one of the, and our, one of the biggest benefits for this genetic 09:56.960 --> 10:04.520 algorithm, because you can, with a simulation, you can really simulate nearly everything. 10:04.520 --> 10:11.480 You do not have to have linear problems, for example, you might be non-linear, there might 10:11.480 --> 10:18.240 be a time-capital and so on, simulation works for all of that. 10:18.240 --> 10:22.240 So how can you access for U.S. for you to use? 10:22.240 --> 10:29.000 U.S. provides several interfaces to exchange data and to receive commands. 10:29.000 --> 10:35.120 The primary interface is the rest interface by HTP request and by HTP responses. 10:35.120 --> 10:40.800 And by this interface, you can control everything of U.S. 10:40.800 --> 10:44.320 and you can also monitor everything. 10:44.320 --> 10:48.600 Here on the left side, you see the speaker front of the rest API. 10:48.600 --> 10:53.760 It is, for example, testing of the rest API and this automatically provided by the underlying 10:53.760 --> 10:58.160 library, we're using in faith, fast API server for this. 10:58.160 --> 11:04.400 And the window on the right side shows the response to an energy management plan request. 11:04.400 --> 11:12.960 The plan is a JSON structure to be further processed by the request. 11:12.960 --> 11:20.040 The JSON structure is oriented to the S2 standard, which I think is maybe a topic in the next 11:20.040 --> 11:21.040 talk. 11:21.040 --> 11:29.320 U.S. can also be directly integrated into homo-system, I think one of the most popular 11:29.320 --> 11:35.480 open source homo-domations systems, it is integrated as an add-on. 11:35.480 --> 11:40.360 And U.S. can provide the actual optimization instruction and the whole optimization solution 11:40.360 --> 11:46.080 to the homo-system so-called entity status sets that are used by homo-system. 11:46.080 --> 11:51.640 Here, for example, the actual instruction for better one is to switch to fast charge, where 11:51.640 --> 11:56.160 the home application one shall be off. 11:56.160 --> 12:00.600 The rest interface is still workable also when using it in homo-system. 12:00.600 --> 12:07.080 And we have another special adapter that uses the data exchange with Node-Ret, though there 12:07.080 --> 12:11.720 is a popular slow-based programming tool also used for homo-domation. 12:11.720 --> 12:15.280 Yeah, that's it for the technique. 12:15.280 --> 12:19.840 If you're interested, my pledges please get involved. 12:19.840 --> 12:25.000 You have to make complex energy optimization freely and available and easily available 12:25.000 --> 12:27.520 in open source. 12:27.520 --> 12:30.720 There are a lot of means you can help. 12:30.720 --> 12:34.960 Use Airs, report to us, provide your own ideas. 12:34.960 --> 12:38.160 We already have some for us to go for. 12:38.160 --> 12:44.400 It's we want to switch to 50 minutes of automation time slots because the prices are created 12:44.400 --> 12:47.280 in 50 minutes time slots. 12:47.280 --> 12:53.800 I want to integrate my heat pump, so it's also can be simulated and controlled. 12:53.800 --> 12:59.680 On the slide you see your online resources, we are on GitHub for sure, there are the sources, 12:59.680 --> 13:06.320 the tests and the documentation is also the documentation sources are on GitHub, also there's 13:06.320 --> 13:12.640 an issues page where you can provide new ideas and hand commands and also bugs, they're 13:12.720 --> 13:20.160 always from bugs and our documentation is also on read the docs where you can read it. 13:20.160 --> 13:23.240 And we have a forum on aqueduct.net. 13:23.240 --> 13:28.560 It is mostly German but any languages welcome. 13:28.560 --> 13:37.160 Thank you. 13:37.160 --> 13:47.080 We have time for questions. 13:47.080 --> 13:48.080 It's not implemented. 13:48.080 --> 13:49.880 We're using the format. 13:49.880 --> 13:54.880 The question is whether we have implemented S2 product or sorry. 13:54.880 --> 14:00.200 Now we did not implement the full S2 product or but we use it for example for this JSON 14:00.200 --> 14:20.440 structure to structure the data that we provide in the plan. 14:20.440 --> 14:42.840 Yeah sure there's most of it possible. 14:42.840 --> 14:48.200 The question is whether there are any method or additional method to close the gap between 14:48.200 --> 14:49.920 the predictions to be more precise. 14:49.920 --> 14:50.920 I think? 14:50.920 --> 15:00.880 Yeah, we have mostly using predictions from the internet so you can ask for PV prediction 15:00.880 --> 15:01.880 for example. 15:01.880 --> 15:09.080 Aqueduct is running its own server where you can ask for your specific configuration 15:09.080 --> 15:12.440 of PV system to get predictions from. 15:12.680 --> 15:19.920 Or we have load predictions from load profiles that are calculated by a certain set of households 15:19.920 --> 15:23.080 that they're using in an adapting. 15:23.080 --> 15:30.440 But because we're also getting the measurement from the system so we can go back and to 15:30.440 --> 15:32.440 some adjustments. 15:32.440 --> 15:39.680 And in future I think there will also some machine learning models to adjust this to your 15:39.680 --> 15:48.280 personal situation because what you get is more over a bigger area and so you can adjust 15:48.280 --> 15:49.680 your personal situation. 15:49.680 --> 15:58.840 That is planned or that can happen if somebody is coding it but it's not in at the moment. 15:58.840 --> 16:00.840 Okay thank you. 16:00.840 --> 16:10.080 So you have a hander like if I want to load my dishwasher now and want to run it now 16:10.080 --> 16:15.640 or not by charge my liquor cart, how is the handle? 16:15.640 --> 16:21.640 You just tell a certain time slot time window when you want to charge or your dishwasher 16:21.640 --> 16:22.640 to be run. 16:22.640 --> 16:28.680 Is that anticipated that the prediction that I might from my dishwasher cost usually I might? 16:28.760 --> 16:33.920 No you get an optimization instruction you say okay this is my time window or these are my 16:33.920 --> 16:39.760 time windows and then you get an optimal time window that will be towed for example to 16:39.760 --> 16:44.400 home assistant that has to switch on your dishwasher for example. 16:44.400 --> 16:51.480 So if you tell what you want you do the optimization and you get something that's hopefully 16:51.480 --> 16:54.240 fulfilling your wishes. 16:54.240 --> 16:56.480 Okay thank you.