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Inside edgeFLEX: The Making of a Platform

Posted: 09-03-2023

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    Platform origins

    In the edgeFLEX project, we had the considerable challenge of delivering on the work that was scoped out before the COVID-19 pandemic in the new environment of remote and hybrid working. We were able to overcome this challenge by drawing on the previous work done within the Horizon 2020 programme as well as the considerable experience of the consortium members, allowing us to make efficient use of our time and resources. The fruits of these are evident in the development of the edgeFLEX platform.

    The purpose of the edgeFLEX platform

    The purpose of the edgeFLEX platform is to facilitate the deployment and interoperability of the diverse range of control services developed within the edgeFLEX project, which are focused on grid management, virtual power plant (VPP) optimisation and flexibility trading. Work on the platform began by defining a set of requirements from which software, communications and business architectures were created. Here, previous work utilized as the reference architecture from the H2020 SOGNO project was extended to incorporate the concept of flexibility trading. This architecture was then refined to create the reference architecture from which the platform was developed. Although this work was carried out remotely, it proceeded in much the same way as it had before the pandemic…sans lively banter during coffee mornings.

    Importance of communication

    Much like working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, communication is an important aspect of the edgeFLEX platform, as data must be received from remote trial sites to be utilised by the various services. Based on the communications architecture developed from the gathered requirements, the platform required a data bus service to enable data to be communicated between the services and field devices. An open-source application called DockerMQTT that was developed as part of the RESERVE project was utilised to this end. Open-source software has a large role to play in research in terms of generating valuable outputs and increasing transparency and reproducibility . The storage and graphing of time-series data from the field was also developed based on work done as part of the SOGNO project. Development of the edgeFLEX platform benefitted greatly from the ability to expand upon software developed previously by project partners.

    Working during the pandemic

    A large portion of the work in edgeFLEX took place in the backdrop of the pandemic, which brought about many challenges. Gone were the office talks and project meetups where people could meet face to face, instead these were replaced by Zoom meetings and in-depth technical discussions with the family pet. However, the edgeFLEX platform demonstrates that valuable work can be achieved in such a context and that a successful research project is built upon a foundation of previous work and experience, as well as on the body of established research. As one French writer, Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr once wisely said, “The more things change, the more things stay the same.” The mode of work may have changed, but research continues on as it always has.

    Barba, L.A. (2022) “Defining the role of Open source software in research reproducibility,” Computer, 55(8), pp. 40–48. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1109/mc.2022.3177133.