Circles of Power: village metering economics & open DER stack

ISV-HCK-001 · Open Energy Hackathon · SF Climate Week · Earth Day 2025

$600–1.5k

Typical legacy prepaid meter (problem)

~$58

Target per-household metering (pole EMS prototype)

Feeder

Natural boundary for a village DER market

Problems we are trying to solve

Rural mini-grid operators often cannot afford per-customer AMI. Without metering they cannot bill reliably, detect theft, or maintain systems. Below the feeder, devices speak STS, DLMS, OEM, MODBUS, and proprietary RF — while utilities and aggregators need IEEE 2030.5 and SunSpec-shaped data. The 2025 hack tested open pole-mount EMS hardware and protocol gateways against these constraints.

What came out of the hackathon

Street Pole EMS Box (ISV + NESL + Energy IOT) — ESP32, three meters + relays per pole, SunSpec JSON over MQTT; branches on github.com/energy-iot/ems-dev
Feeder-level DER market — Post Road Foundation: geofence is the distribution feeder, not the whole utility territory
Anchor customers — ISV grant requirement; a paying business stabilizes village O&M (maps to field reality, not metaphor)
NILM — aggregate signature disaggregation as a path to lighter-weight telemetry

Appendix: Stonehenge topology metaphor

One modeling device from the original essay — a mnemonic mapping monument features to microgrid roles (Altar = aggregator, Sarsen/lintels = pole EMS + lines, Heelstone = anchor customer, etc.). Useful for workshops; not a product spec.

Feature	Role
Altar	Aggregator / head-end (billing, theft detection, cloud uplink)
Avenue	Grid tie (IEEE 2030.5 when connected)
Sarsen + lintels	Street Pole EMS boxes and last-mile wiring
Heelstone	Anchor customer
Station stones	EV / Sun Blazer charging hubs
Bluestone / rings	Solar PV and AC vs DC load zones

Circles of Power: village metering economics & open DER stack

What came out of the hackathon

Appendix: Stonehenge topology metaphor

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