Handling big data thanks to a processing platform under Power BI

Always energy

"Our slogan is: always energy for your company," says founder and owner of Awesems, René van de Kracht. "While grid operators are still busy with the energy transition, we want to help companies move forward." In addition to national chains like Van der Valk, Awesems works for the proverbial baker on the corner. "We offer them hybrid solutions. We have regular chargers and fast chargers, batteries for storing sustainably generated energy, and an energy management system that ensures the connection between the battery, the charging infrastructure, and a customer's dynamic contract. Additionally, we developed our own software to continuously provide a suitable charging solution based on customer needs."

Benefits of proprietary software

René explains that most companies do not approach them simply for a quote for chargers. "They want to electrify, be able to charge on-site, and for example, know how many trucks they can still purchase within the available energy capacity. You need knowledge and computing power for that." Thanks to the proprietary software, Awesems can make that quickly visible. "Moreover, we see increasingly critical business infrastructure, both for batteries and for charging. As a transporter, you don't want to be confronted in the morning with chargers that haven't done their job. That's why our software also localizes and alerts problems, so that the right parties can immediately ensure a good solution."

Custom dashboard

To make these kinds of services possible, it is essential that the metadata from Awesems' system can be processed quickly. For that, they called on the help of Axelio. "Together with some of their people, we laid the foundation for the platform we now have. This platform converts the data that comes in through protocols into notifications that are also understandable for our customers. We can now offer them a dashboard that contains all the information they find important. It clearly shows what is happening in their environment at a glance. The more critical that environment, the more detailed the information on the dashboard."

Handling big data

René on the part of the data process that Axelio developed and manages for Awesems: "We collect all data from the CPMS and the portal in our own data center. From there, the data goes to Azure and then we push it to our platform for data processing in Power BI, where our dashboard is the final result." In total, the development of the current real-time dashboard of Awesems was a three-year process. René is pleased with the result: "We now have a smart processing platform under Power BI that allows us to handle enormous amounts of data."

Complex environment

According to René, the biggest challenge for Axelio was to transform the complex environment in which Awesems operates, including all protocols, into customer-friendly services. "The chargers operate on an OCPP protocol. Mastering how that works is a tough job. Just like figuring out how to interpret the data that comes from it. But Axelio showed that they understand what a customer wants and that they know where to find the data that is important for that. They translate that into services in a fantastic way. We can now create a specific dashboard for every customer."

Heatmap and predictive maintenance

The foundation for Awesems' intelligent data processing architecture is now in place. "The data flows are running well and the data is reliable. So it's time to take further steps," René continues. "For example, by developing services like a heatmap and predictive maintenance. Predictive maintenance means scheduling maintenance based on historical data. A heatmap is a map where you can see the occupancy rate of chargers. This makes it easy for facility managers to demonstrate that it is wise to invest in additional chargers at certain locations. Through such a heatmap, we can also make visible where failures occur and what kind of failures they are."

Both the idea for the heatmap and that for predictive maintenance arose thanks to the collaborative thinking of Axelio. "Without that flexibility, we would never have been where we are now," says René. "They point out things we hadn't thought of ourselves. This allows us to continue meeting customer needs, often even before they are aware of them."