domOS is a catalyst for smart services deployment as it contributes to a more “industrialised” smart services for buildings scene, by specifying a conceptual model (the domOS ecosystem) with defined interfaces between its building blocks. The conceptual model enables specialised and complementary roles, promotes appliance model independent services, and enables energy management scenarios involving multiple appliances.
STAKEHOLDERS
Appliance manufacturers
As of today, most manufacturers of energy appliances develop and operate a vertically integrated information system: the appliances are connected to a cloud solution and customers dispose of an app for monitoring and configuration.
With domOS, manufacturers – or the open source community – elaborate a description document enabling the seamless integration of appliances in third-party information systems.
The association Smart Grid Ready pioneers this approach. Compliant appliances and platforms get a certification.
System integrator
System integrators develop energy management solutions for buildings. They orchestrate energy generation, consumption and storage for optimal behaviour. Optimality criteria can be efficiency, cost, flexibility at different scales, CO2 emissions, or any combination.
Today system integrators must use resources to solve connectivity issues. By providing easy connectivity, domOS enables them to concentrate on their key business.
Building facility operators
Building facility operators oversee the technical management of a building or of a set of buildings featuring various energy topologies and various appliances. Today they struggle to integrate data originating from multiple appliances. The domOS ecosystem provides them with a straightforward integration path requiring only description documents for the involved appliances.
Smart service developers & operators
Smart services need not only to access monitoring and control points in buildings but also to know metadata on the buildings’ energy system (e.g., features of the heat production and distribution). In domOS, smart services have access to digital twins of buildings. The digital twins contain the energy models for buildings as well as locators (“addresses”) to access monitoring and control points. Hence, services developers and operators can concentrate on service issues only. They can reduce costs (uniform interface to buildings) and address a larger set of buildings (all compliant buildings).
IoT platform for smart buildings operators
An IoT platform acts as a mediation layer between the infrastructure in buildings and smart services. It can be implemented fully on a local building gateway, totally centralised in the cloud, or as a mix. Many business models are possible: a platform made available as a component of a building gateway, a subscription to a platform service associated with an app store for smart services, or a white-label platform operated by a smart service operator….
Utilities
Until recently, utilities did their job – to reliably deliver electricity, gas, heat, and/or water – without the support of digitalisation. This is exemplified by the manual reading – typically with a yearly period – of meters.
These times are now over, and utilities enter the digital era, together with their customers. This is caused on one side by the availability of low-cost mature IoT (Internet of Things) technologies and on the other by new requirements for smart metering, grid control, energy markets and customer support.
Utilities need an IoT infrastructure for their own business and are trusted by citizens as reliable energy partners. They are in a good position to take the roles of IoT platform and smart service operators. domOS offers them a way to integrate smart metering, grid control services and energy services for customers in a coherent environment.