ComTrade is an expert software company with fundamental skills in the energy sector. Embedded skills apply to:
IT and network management expertise helps with the complexity of large scale home automation, AMR, and the intersection of the IT world with the energy grid.
ComTrade has been a leader in large IT infrastructure and in embedded technologies. The two have combined with the latest generation of home automation technology.
DigitalSTROM brings home automation into a single chip package that includes energy monitoring, control, and intelligent communications over the existing electrical wiring infrastructure. We believe that this is the technology that makes home automation wide scale and therefore the need for industrial quality infrastructure: infrastructure, management, middleware, gateways, and other key components that bring real energy savings and convenience to users. Check the
use case for more information.
Large scale deployment of intelligent electrical metering and other downstream ‘smart’ components create a problem and an opportunity for electrical distributors. AMR meters reduce the demands on support, meter reading, and replacements; however, if the new electrical meters do not have automated management, then we risk creating a new problem that is almost as big as the initial problem.
The solution is to use IT and telecom management constructs, standards, and tools instead of proprietary manufacturer’s management tools and protocols. ComTrade has combined our IT network and systems management expertise with electrical distribution knowledge and embedded knowledge to help AMR companies in USA and Europe.
There are numerous techniques for gathering data from remote electrical devices (AMR or DigitalSTROM):
- mobile data network
- data over electrical lines
- RF data to mobile trucks
- data over existing IP networks
We have experience in these technologies and have built gateways and data concentrators that allow efficient intelligent network deployment over maximum use of existing infrastructure.
Business Process Management (BPM) and underlying Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) are ideally suited tools for support and optimization of electricity distribution business practices. New commercial pressures are now requiring business efficiencies that are well suited for a combination of IT and optimized process workflow design. We have direct experience applying these technologies within electricity distribution and transmission companies.