BluWave-ai is artificial intelligence for clean energy. Formed around the goal of bringing AI, edge computing, and cloud supercomputing to the world of distributed renewable energy, BluWave-ai aims to drive the transition from a centralized, carbon-based energy model to an open market — where it can be produced and efficiently consumed by anyone, anywhere.
Faced with the challenge of incorporating electric vehicles into the smart grid, BluWave-ai turned to Smartcar for quick integration of leading EV brands, and streamlined data aggregation through a vehicle API.
Power output from popular renewable energy sources like wind and solar tends to fluctuate, making it difficult for operators to manage and balance efficiently with demand. Met with operational and capital expenditure challenges of replacing traditional gas-powered cars with an electric fleet, operators in the transportation industry often struggle to make the most of their EVs. As consumers are also switching from fossil-fueled personal vehicles to EVs, electric utilities are faced with challenges supplying the increasing demand from home-based chargers.
Empowering intelligent scheduling & load balancing
To combat this relevant issue of electrification, BluWave-ai’s grid energy optimization platform balances the cost, availability, and impact of multiple energy sources. It calculates the most efficient source for the needs of both individual customers and providers in real-time. Built on this platform, the company’s flagship product for electric utilities, EV Everywhere, incorporates variables like load prediction, renewable generation prediction, EV charging demand prediction, and fast AI execution capabilities to send automated, load-balancing signals to grid hardware. Over time, AI models running on EV Everywhere learn and optimize its operations, adapting to system changes, and shifting or regulating EV charging to match needs.
On the consumer end, users receive notifications via a mobile app to opt-in to charging times and opportunities, special programs, incentives, and more. This directly benefits both parties through lower energy bills and reliable charging.
We chose Smartcar’s vehicle APIs to augment our EV Everywhere product capabilities, advancing our mission of promoting sustainable energy solutions for the energy and transportation sectors.
— Devashish Paul, CEO, BluWave-ai
Bridging the hardware/software gap
Obtaining vehicle data entails a host of manual hardware (OBD dongles, EV chargers, etc.) that would need to be individually programmed and fine-tuned. Integrating different makes and models for hundreds of EV chargers, not all of which are connected to the internet or OCPP (open charge point protocol) compatible, proved burdensome and increasingly expensive for BluWave-ai. Additionally, the varying specifications, protocols, and compatibility issues that come with each charger made the process even more time-consuming, resource-intensive, and ultimately unfit for BluWave-ai’s expansive goals.
To solve the challenge of vehicle integrations, BluWave-ai selected Smartcar for its extensive list of compatible EV brands, seamless onboarding, and breadth of API documentation. This allowed BluWave-ai to focus on more value-added features like refining the organization’s grid energy optimizers and streamlining the EV charging control solution.
[Smartcar’s] expertise in API integration, with the wide-ranging fleet of electric vehicles on the road will help accelerate scaling out our EV Everywhere product line for power utilities and system operators worldwide.
— Devashish Paul, CEO, BluWave-ai
Accelerating the adoption of EVs in the smart grid
Today, EV Everywhere acts as an automated liaison between individual EV owners and their corresponding utilities. The transition to higher EV penetration is made simpler by offloading active managed charging from utilities. The platform smooths peaks in the system with intelligent scheduling of EV charging and available battery energy storage. Through continued use, EV Everywhere learns local trends, tracks changes, and makes predictions for both day-ahead and same-day grid usage. This software-only and non-wires alternative (NWA) solution gives utility operators visibility into system status and real-time grid power flow, hence deferring and reducing the need for pricy capital infrastructure upgrades.
BluWave-ai remains focused on enhancing the EV owner experience through Smartcar’s API endpoints, providing seamless connectivity to a wide range of EVs. Using this comprehensive approach, BluWave-ai seeks to reach a broader audience, prompting more EV owners to participate in utility programs and collaborate with grid operations. In this way, BluWave-ai promotes sustainable energy management and contributes to a more sustainable future.
