Researchers develop computing stack to monitor, control electrical loads

Researchers at the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Andhra Pradesh have developed an "Edge Computing Stack" to monitor and control electrical loads.

The new device is an Internet-of-Things (IoT) based electrical switch designed to check the consumption of electrical appliances. According to the NIT team, the device is unique due to its hybridised approach of power line communication and Wi-Fi, and it has received an Indian patent too.

IoT-based monitoring system for individual appliances will help the consumer for balanced utilisation of energy and also save the power bill, the NIT team said. In the existing devices, automatic electrical switches are limited to operate the loads via wireless medium and they fail to record and store the consumption data of each electrical appliance.

The invention is a miniaturised, low-power, flexible, easy to mount plug-and-play system and it can be used in building energy management systems, the team claimed

The system consists of two modules namely "Master" and "Slave". The Master Device communicates with a mobile device through a wireless medium. The Slave devices are directly connected to electrical appliances, which sense the voltage, current, power and power factor of each appliance. The sensed information is communicated to the Master Device through a Power Line Communication (PLC).