Implementing a Powerful Energy Management System

Discover how our partner Pluggable implemented a complete Energy Management System (EMS) for GenCell using macchina.io EDGE and REMOTE technology. In less than a year, delivered was a complete solution that autonomously manages over 30 components, provides secure remote access, and supports future IIoT applications – all while reducing hardware costs by 75%.

GenCell’s leadership highlights how this rapid development allowed them to go to market faster with a robust, scalable EMS platform. Read on to find out more about the technology behind this success.

Fueling a New Era In Humanity´s Tomorrow

A Compact Hydrogen Fuel Cell System

In a fast-paced world, GenCell stood out with a plan to change and revolutionize clean energy. They aimed to develop a cutting-edge hydrogen fuel cell system that would give us all a better future.
This system converts hydrogen gas into electricity, providing a clean power source for applications such as electric vehicle charging, off- grid power and backup/emergency power.

We based our edge IoT on macchina.io EDGE SDK to allow rapid development and fast go-to-market. This decision has proved itself, as our development team evolved it into a full featured edge EMS platform.

Haim Moshe, 
VP Customer Services GenCell

GenCell Energy Management System Requirements

EMS Data Acquisition and Decision Making

The fuel cell itself is controlled by a PLC. However, the energy management system also needs an additional computing system for various tasks, including:

• Collecting and logging data and events from the PLC and additional sensors.
• Processing that data, including computing additional parameters from the available data.
• Visualizing the parameters in a web interface.
• Rule processing, based on configurable rule sets.
• Generating notifications (e.g., via SMS, Email or Telegram) and alarms if an abnormal condition is detected.
• Interfacing the energy management system with its environment. Customers must be able to retrieve parameters, as well as control the power generator (e.g., power it on or off) via various interfaces, including Modbus MQTT or domain-specific protocols like DNP3.

The EMS Challenge

Initially, the GenCell team was very ambitious and inclined to build everything in-house. But soon, the team’s analysis of the risks and efforts quickly led them to abandon the idea. Building from scratch meant significant time and resources spent on commodity features like authentication and communication protocols like Modbus or MQTT.

Realizing the potential setbacks, they pivoted.

GenCell tasked Pluggable with building a new energy management solution that should be more cost effective, more reliable and easily adaptable to future requirements. They started the process by evaluating different software frameworks and we chose macchina.io EDGE.

macchina.io EDGE Features Used

macchina.io REMOTE Features Used

The Results

macchina.io REMOTE enables seamless secure access to our H2 generators, with automated device registration and connectivity test integrated within our assembly line.

Gal Netzer, GEMS Product Manager GenCell

Using the lean architecture of macchina.io EDGE, we reduced hardware costs by 75%.

1. Instead of just a gateway, we delivered a complete energy management system, based on macchina.io EDGE and REMOTE technology, in under a year.
2. Possibility to remotely access the local UIs and deeper connectivity (e.g. file transfer via SSH) for technicians. No project delays due to the proven technology of macchina.io.
3. Future proof architecture as additional data points and features can be added easily and the solution is ready to use for complex edge computing and IIoT applications within the cloud.
4. The edge application manages over 30 system components autonomously and can connect to the internet for data transfer to the cloud and remote management.