Name: Interview with Pedro González Castrillo: “We are involved in the planning and dissemination of the use of electric vehicle charger infrastructure”.
The company Senergyps is a spin-off of the University of Extremadura that offers a wide range of very advanced services related to the energy sector and renewable mobility, among others.
Question 1: Energy consumption is of increasing concern to families and companies, what solutions does SENERGYPS provide in this field?
Various studies show that monitoring the energy consumption of buildings, offices and industrial centres provides users with extra information that is key to changing their habits, achieving savings of between 5% and 15%. For this reason, Senergyps has developed a multi-sector monitoring system for the recording of variable data from any production system with the possibility of recording, characterisation and post-analysis of the same, also allowing remote control actions on certain equipment of the installation. The objective is to automate the process of energy use and consumption in the building based on a pattern of measured variables in order to seek savings based on rationalisation and automation of energy consumption.
Question 2: The photovoltaic sector is again in a moment of great growth in the region, what can Senergyps’ vision and solutions contribute in this field?
Senergyps’ services go beyond conventional maintenance and include activities such as repair of power units, electronic carding, search and testing of substitute components, analysis of plant problems, monitoring, retro-engineering manufacturing, preparation of preventive maintenance programmes, consultancy and auditing. We have a complete testing laboratory, consisting of DC sources, bidirectional AC sources, precision wattmeters, oscilloscopes, soldering and desoldering systems, supply quality analysers/recorders…
We currently work with companies nationwide in O&M (Operation and Maintenance) for the repair of all photovoltaic inverters and associated electronics of our customers’ photovoltaic plants. We are a multi-brand repair laboratory that offers more attractive maintenance solutions for the customer than the manufacturer itself.
The aim is to support customers in the preventive, corrective and predictive maintenance of PV plants in order to identify problems, reduce operating costs and optimise production performance.
Question 3: Senergyps has participated in conferences on renewable mobility in Extremadura, an area of great future where electric charging will be fundamental, are you researching in this field?
Senergyps is involved in the planning and dissemination of the use of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, being in contact with administrations, end users, EV user associations and European charging point management platforms. It has executed contracts for public administrations and the private sector for consultancy, installation, maintenance and management of charging infrastructure.
We are involved in communications between charging equipment and the backoffice of management platforms via OCPP (Open Charge Point Protocol) and also in communications between mobility service provider platforms and infrastructure operator platforms via OCPI (Open Charge Point Interface) to ensure interoperability in the use of electric mobility infrastructures.
Question 4: What other future areas related to the energy sector is Senergyps working on?
Senergyps is working on material traceability with NFC technology for tracking through mobile devices. This way, information can be read, written and reported in the cloud to record and automate maintenance. A deep learning algorithm is included to suggest priorities for diagnosis, action and decrease operation and corrective maintenance periods by giving preventive patterns for each material.
Through a national research call, a project is being carried out to analyse, develop and evaluate an intelligent device for the management of electrical energy in housing and waste environments, so that the consumer assumes an active participation.
At the same time, another research project of the Junta de Extremadura on active equalisation of lithium-ion batteries is being carried out, which will allow balancing the voltage of the cells of the battery pack in an active way with the aim of improving the life cycle and performance of the battery pack.