About the project

Contributors

Rohan Shah, Parth Jha, Lin Thu Hein (Atutu)

One of the primary concerns of setting up independent electric microgrids in marginalized communities is matching the daily usage across all the use cases. In urban areas, we generally have usage data and forecasting publicly available which alleviates a lot other these issues. Large non-profits seeking to electrify rural communities actively seek this data to estimate the resources required to establish grids.

At Atutu, we developed just this - the Energy Scout. Energy Scout is a mobile, portable, and non-invasive energy monitoring device with an onboard computer for remote retrieval and storage of real-time usage data.

Development

Even as a non-profit project, we sought to adhere to industry standards throughout our project. Our 2 DC and 1 AC meter communicate via the MODBUS protocol to ensure lossless and smooth data transfer. We used a waterproof NEMA enclosure that is heat and dust resistant. I was also in charge of designing a custom PCB to ensure the amount of physical wires were kept to a minimum.

Energy Scout

Conferences

2025 Resilience Fest - https://www.footprintproject.org/resilience-fest