EMS portrait for Virtual Global Trading AG
- Company
- Virtual Global Trading AG
- Company headquarters
- Aarau, Switzerland
- Energy management system (EMS)
- GENIA
- Website
- https://www.vgt.energy
GENIA represents an advanced energy management system (EMS) with built-in artificial intelligence (AI) that can be flexibly deployed regardless of the hardware used. Using deep reinforcement learning, GENIA continuously adapts to its specific environment, be it a single building or a building complex, a neighborhood or a city. It configures itself autonomously to achieve optimal results for our customers. All data points and a wide range of devices can be collected, integrated and provided to GENIA through the VGT platform. GENIA uses these data points to perform comprehensive analysis as well as initiate automated optimization processes that adapt to self-consumption, weather conditions and market situations. GENIA's primary goal is to ensure economically efficient operations and world-class comfort for our valued customers.
General information
| main target group |
|
| Utility service | electricity, heating, water |
| Do Swiss customers belong to your target group? | Yes, they belong to our main target group |
Functions for real estate
Offer for utilities
Specifications
| Interfaces to utility systems |
|
| Commercialisation by utilities | Yes, with white label as standard |
| METAS certification | No, certification by METAS is not (any longer) relevant. |
| Further advantages for utility | Digitization of all services for the end customer from the energy supplier. Self-learning and self-configuring EMS. |
Compatible Components
| Electricity meter |
Standard offer available
|
| Heat meter |
Standard offer available
|
| Water meter |
Standard offer available
|
| Inverter/PV system |
Standard offer available
|
| Battery storage |
Standard offer available
|
| Heat pump |
Standard offer available
|
| Combined heat and power plant (CHPP) |
Standard offer available
|
| Water boiler |
Standard offer available
|
| Other heating systems |
Standard offer available
|
| Heat storage |
Standard offer available
|
| EV-charging station |
Standard offer available
|
| Smart Home elements |
Standard offer available
|
| Average cost to implement new producers (driver development) |
No installation costs (hardware independent).
Subscription from CHF 10.00 per month.
|
Technical information
| Operating elements |
|
| Components of the product |
|
| Interfaces to components |
|
| Communication interfaces | GSM, LAN, WLAN, MPLS, M2M, VPN, LAN-I |
| SmartGridready | Yes, the declaration has already been made |
| Integration of third-party systems to influence hardware | Standard offer under development |
| Control and regulation mechanisms | If-Then Functions, Algorithms (consideration of several factors), Self-learning algorithms |
| Control of components | Centrally in a control box (local), Centrally in a control box (cloud) |
Intervals for data measurement and transmission
| Data measurement for control | In real time (up to 5 seconds) |
| Data measurement for electricity billing | Real time (up to 5 seconds) |
| Data measurement for e-mobility billing | Real time (up to 5 seconds) |
| Data measurement for heat billing | Hourly |
| Data measurement for water billing | Daily |
| Data transmission | In real time (up to 5 minutes) |
Installation & Operation
| When purchased via utility | Installation by End user, EMS provider, Specialist partner, utility, External installer, other partners |
| When purchsed via EMS provider | Installation by End user, EMS provider, Specialist partner, utility, External installer, other partners |
| When purchased via wholesale | Installation by End user, EMS provider, Specialist partner, utility, External installer, other partners |
| Duration of installation at the end customer | 1 to 10 hours |
| Software updates | weekly |
| Softwar updates - how | Automatic process |
| Software updates - who | VGT Integration Pipeline |
| Warranty | Genia EMS system runs in the cloud or on any standard computer, industrial computer as well as on servers. |
| Lifetime | GENIA is hardware independent and has an endless lifetime |
Data protection and IT security
| Data protection guarantee | All communication (related to personal and customer data) that takes place between Partner & us uses the AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) encryption method by default to exchange data via HTTPS. If the endpoint does not support this encryption standard, the unencrypted protocol HTTP is used. In general, an encrypted connection is preferred whenever possible. We strive to minimize the number of people with access to electronically stored production customer data. Therefore, rights to resources are only granted to persons who are responsible for maintaining the specific services. Among other things, our services are operated on the Azure platform, which is offered by Microsoft Corporation. Its administrator access is protected in accordance with current security standards. Among other things, the Azure platform also offers Encryption-At-Rest, which we make use of for all customer data. Among other things, MongoDB's hosting offering is used as a persistence solution for lighter data, such as user accounts. MongoDB, like the Azure platform, offers protection through Encryption-At-Rest. For data that we consider particularly worthy of protection, data is additionally encrypted. If sensitive data, such as service passwords, must be available in plain text at runtime, it is stored in encrypted form and decrypted only when required. If temporary access to sensitive data is required, for example for development, specific rights are only granted to test resources that do not contain customer data or whose consent has been given in advance. |
| Data storage | Cloud - in Switzerland |
| Certification of Cloud solution | No certification, Regular penetration tests and security assessments by third-party companies |
| Access protection of ERM (App/Cloud) | HTTPS, MFA, SSO with 3rd Party IdP |
| Access protection of decentralized units | VPN, LAN-I or private networks |
| Data security on decentralized units | Is ensured by the installer, manufacturer or owner of the equipment, not by us. |
| Protection of data exchange with peripheral systems and decentralized units | Via OAUTH 2.0 or private lines or IP restrictions or other measures |
| Encryption of data in-transfer and in-storage | Fully |
Costs
Costs at building level
These are rough estimates. An offer must be requested for exact cost information.
The following use case was assumed for the cost estimate:
1 Multi-party residential building with the following components (excluding commercial):
- Measuring units: 20 electricity meters, 20 heat meters, 20 water meters (hot & cold)
- 1 photovoltaic system (with 1 inverter)
- 1 heat pump (SG-Ready)
- 1 hot water boiler
- 20 parking spaces, 5 of which are fully equipped with charging stations
-
Of these, the following functions can be fulfilled:
Measure electricity meterMeasure heat meterMeasure water meterIntegration PV systemControl heat pumpControl water boilerDynamic load managementData delivery consumption charging stations for billing (without collection)Implementation ZEV (pure data delivery - no collection) -
Of these, the following functions cannot be fulfilled:
| Comment | The VGT platform does not care how many electricity meters, heat meters, water meters (hot & cold), photovoltaic system (with 1 inverter), heat pump (SG-Ready), hot water boiler are connected on the platform. The platform charges CHF 0.058 per GB of storage in the cloud. In this case, this would be less than CHF 1.00. Only visualizations for end customers are billed. Cost point for this is CHF 0.50 per month/license. The same applies for owners of charging stations who also want a visualization to operate their charging station optimally CHF 0.50 per month/license. A ZEV participant sees in the visualization, all measured values and much more. A charging station owner sees in the visualization his charging station, the state of the vehicle and the tariff (selectable). The operator of the ZEV/platform can assign the visualization to individual participants, independently bill the ZEV and independently develop tariffs and products. Individually and dynamically adaptable, suitable for the respective use case. |
| One-time hardware costs | CHF0 The VGT platform is a SaaS solution, therefore there are no hardware costs. |
| One-time software costs | CHF0 |
| Other costs | 0,058 |
| Total of one-time costs | CHF0 |
| Project management costs | CHF250 per hour |
| Annual costs | CHF1,200 CHF 100 per month per platform Individual depending on the module used for this case. Billing is per month/license. |
| Deviation/discounts for portfolio with 100 buildings (per building) | Pay as use |
Information about the company
| Establishment in Switzerland | Yes, we are compatible with the Swiss system: currency, tariff system, etc. |
| Do you already work together with utilities? |
Yes
With:: AEW, Liechtensteinische Kraftwerke, EWL, IBB, IBL, Energie Thun, IB Interlaken, Energie Opfikon, Werke am Zürichsee, EKZ, etc. (Total 52) |
| Other partners/clients | Prime Technologies SA, Quickline, Abonax AG, Youtility |
| Number of installations in Switzerland | 124'000 measurement points >600 ZEVs |
| Number of installations in Europe (incl. Switzerland) | 10 own and over 50 at utilities |
| Founding year | 2018 |
| Number of FTE | 23 |