Lessons from 5 years of running ESMI and eMARC

In this post, we share our learnings and experience from the design, development and implementation of two remote monitoring initiatives ESMI and eMARC by Prayas (Energy Group). Recently we also published two blog series on the insights gathered from both the initiatives. Interactive dashboards based on the analysis of this data are available on the eMARC and the ESMI websites.

Recently we published two blog series on the insights gathered from our remote monitoring initiatives ESMI and eMARC. Both the initiatives use GPRS based advanced IoT systems and we have collected over 5 years. This data has been used for purposes of research and policy interventions by multiple stakeholders. In this post we describe our experience and learning from designing, developing, implementing, and maintaining these initiatives. 

ESMI & eMARC

ESMI (Electricity Supply Monitoring Initiative) was developed to provide evidence-based feedback about the quality of supply to all stakeholders in the electricity sector. Under eMARC (Monitoring and Analysis of Residential Electricity Consumption) minute-wise data related to electricity consumption is collected using smart meters from a sample of households and appliances. Both the initiatives use IoT enabled voltage and energy monitors deployed at consumer locations across India to collect this data. ESMI was launched in 2015 and eMARC in 2018. Since the time of launch we have collected over 750 million data points from about 500 locations over 5 years. 

The experience of designing, developing, implementing and maintaining these initiatives has been significant. There were exceptional challenges, some anticipated, some not. eMARC benefited from the lessons learnt from ESMI but also presented its own set of challenges. In this post, we briefly describe our experience and learnings from these initiatives. We believe it will be useful for anyone who wants to scale-up or replicate such remote monitoring initiatives. Some lessons may also be useful for the large-scale roll-out of the smart meters currently under way in India. 

Building the system

There are two components of the ESMI and eMARC systems: a monitor to measure and transmit the data and a system for data management and monitoring. Both ESMI and eMARC monitors perform similar functions of capturing data and transmitting the same over GPRS mobile data network, the difference lies in the measured parameters. ESMI measures only voltage on a single phase every minute whereas eMARC measures current, voltage, power, consumption, and power factor on a single phase every minute. In 2013, when we conceptualized ESMI, there was no low cost off the shelf product that matched our requirements. Hence the first challenge was to develop monitors to match required specifications. This was an iterative process and rigorous testing was conducted to make sure the monitors worked to meet our needs. Three vendors were selected to provide monitors for ESMI and two of them helped build monitors for eMARC. A few remarkable features that characterized such a systems include :

• Unobtrusive and sturdy design: In order to prevent any form of damage to the monitors and attract unnecessary attention the monitor design is as unobtrusive as possible so that the monitor does not interfere with routine life of volunteers. The final design was a simple box with no buttons, no alarms, and dim LEDs. The sim-cards were concealed in the box so that volunteers are not tempted to remove and use them, a learning from similar efforts.The ESMI monitor was designed to operate as a simple plug and play unit, without any buttons, the only mode of restart was to switch it on and off from the wall socket. The eMARC monitors on the other hand did require a specific arrangement including MCBs and a changeover switch, to allow safe electricity consumption measurement. Both monitors were developed to be relatively rugged to withstand the transportation, human handling and weather changes. Even with all necessary precautions and installations mostly indoors, one of our monitors was damaged when a gang of monkeys managed to get their hands on it.

• Operating voltage range: Years of organizational experience in the electricity sector suggested that monitors could face extreme ranges of voltage at consumer locations. Ensuring that monitors could work in 100-300V was a crucial element of the development. We developed a set of tests that simulated extreme conditions in the field such as sustained high or low voltage using a voltage variac. The tests also simulated very long and very short interruptions. For eMARC monitors, the tests also included measurement of loads under varying voltages. Furthermore, we rigorously tested the monitors even at locations with voltage issues. Yet several of our monitors have been damaged by voltage supply over 330 volts continuously exceeding a few minutes. In another case one monitor was damaged when a lightning struck a distribution line in the village, along with several electrical appliances operating in the area at that moment.

• A robust system to manage data : Ensuring good quality data was key to the credibility of both the initiatives. A number of validity checks were developed and incorporated to ensure all incoming data on the server was scrutinised. This helped in identifying any cases of missing or incorrect data early and taking necessary action. In most of the cases, data delay or absence was due to weak mobile data network, unplugging of monitors, or faults. A ticketing system was developed to help keep track of open issues and history of all the actions taken in the process of daily monitoring. Finally, the system also helped to keep track of the movement of monitors and sim-cards. This made the system efficient and prevented human errors. 

Deployments 

The second set of challenges were encountered during the process of installation of the monitors at the consumer premises. These included finding willing households, commercial and agricultural premises to host the monitors, organizations to support installations and physical challenges like extending the antenna to get better network access and system level updates. We discuss some of these challenges in detail which we believe will help similar efforts.

Figure 1: Images of eMARC and ESMI monitors

• Finding willing and sincere volunteers: Identifying volunteers in different states/districts, who could host the monitor for at least a couple of years was a significant challenge. Several apprehensions, more for eMARC monitors, had to be addressed. Firstly, most volunteers believed these monitors would increase their electricity bills as they would be in an always ON state.Through several rigorous testing it was noted that all monitors consumed only <1kWh of energy each month. Second was to identify a plug to host the monitors. ESMI monitors are plug and play monitors; availability of power sockets in many rural homes was limited. In many such cases we provided an additional socket to ensure volunteers are not inconvenienced. In the case of eMARC monitors, there were concerns about the installation itself. These monitors included fitting an A4 sized board which had the monitor, a MCB and a change over switch mounted and needed a trained electrician to make the connections. Households were worried that it may cause issues in their electricity supply. We had to address these concerns by explaining the working of the monitors and the option of using a bypass mechanism in a very rare case that the supply to the house is cut due to a faulty monitor or electrical upgrades in the house.Thirdly volunteers were also apprehensive that the distribution company (Discom) officials may penalize them for installing such monitors. We assured them that the monitors are installed behind the Discom meter and hence were just like any other appliance. Finally we also did not mention that the monitor had SIM cards to prevent any misuse. In the case of ESMI, a sticker saying 'Do not switch off' was put on the switch where the monitor was plugged in. There were some other social dynamics which also came into play while finding willing households. For e.g. in one village, a local goon threatened our team and created a ruckus preventing us from installing the monitors. 

• Volunteers and organizations to support installations: We are a small organization and it would have been impossible for us to spread the initiative across India. We worked with several different models. In one model, we collaborated with individual volunteers, friends or local grassroots organizations to take the initiative and assist in finding households, installing the monitors and maintaining them. In another model, we got support from state agencies like Rural Electrification Corporation (REC), Electricity Regulatory Commissions etc. which helped in coordinating at local level. In a third model, we hired market research companies as implementing agencies. All the models had their positive and negative points. In the case of individual volunteers or local organizations, sustaining their interest was a major challenge. In the case of the state agencies, the project fizzled if the person leading the initiative left or was transferred. Hiring implementing agencies was the most effective model but also the most expensive. 

• Adapting the installations to the local conditions: We observed a significant variation in the wiring mechanisms and mobile network conditions across the locations. One prominent issue was lack of an earthing wire and even a neutral wire in some cases this created an issue of safety not just for our monitors but also for appliances in households. One other issue was a widespread lack of any protection mechanism like a fuse or a miniature circuit breaker (MCB) in the household wiring system. We provided a MCB in our eMARC assembly in most of the rural installations as a safety feature. Hence, we asked the electrician to draw a detailed circuit diagram of each installation which helped for debugging in case of any issues. The second set of issues were related to the local mobile network conditions. Ensuring that every monitor gets strong network connectivity was critical. Although our monitors were programmed to work with most widely available SIM networks, we had to juggle several options to ensure the same, like draw the antenna wire from the room, or use additional wires to extend the antenna or place the monitors close to a window etc. 

• Updating the system: With each installation and /or change a new entry was required to be made to help in keeping track of the monitors. This helped in having up to date information on each monitor, its location and SIM Card used in the same along with demographic information of the household. Such a system proved very useful in the process of continuous tracking. 

Challenges in sustaining 

The most difficult set of challenges arose in keeping the initiative operational over the years. These challenges were mostly related to continued support from volunteers and unexpected mobile network issues. We discuss them more below.

• Support from volunteers: In both the initiatives, one of the most challenging issues was to get support from volunteers necessary for continuous operation of monitors. This was a problem particularly for those locations where supply quality or mobile network was often a concern. Besides this, some households switched-off the ESMI monitors either inadvertently or for using the socket for other purposes leading to discontinuous data. Through the daily data check process, we could identify these instances and call them to verify such interruptions. This process helped us clarify the reasons for the observed instances either being switched-off monitors, or network issues or in some rare cases due to faulty monitors. All of these issues required some action from the households such as responding to our phone calls,taking easy corrective actions , or providing videos of monitors (in some models where we had LED displays) for diagnosing problems. Initially, households promptly responded but their interest waned over time which made it difficult to ensure data consistency for some locations. We faced a similar problem with the implementing volunteers and organizations. Implementing and maintaining ESMI was not their core activity, also the concerned persons leaving the organization without complete knowledge transfer these issues eventually took its toll leading to slippage in regular tasks. In the case of eMARC, there were some households who attributed increased electricity bills to our monitors and asked us to remove the monitors. We could clearly see from the data that the increase in electricity bills was due to their increased use of fans or coolers but that did not convince them. There were some instances where households changed houses and hence they had to be discontinued. A change in contact number also led to discontinuation of some households as we could not contact them to enquire about data losses.

• Changes in mobile service operations: We chose GPRS as the communication technology as it was the cheapest and also the most suited for covering large geographical areas. We programmed our monitors so that we could use the SIM cards from different mobile network companies. Before the installation, we made sure we used the SIM card from the network provider with the strongest signal in that location. In some cases, however, we observed that the network strength deteriorated over time. We would then have to use an external antenna to boost the signal or change the SIM card. During the course of the project, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) introduced a new set of regulations for the SIM-cards used for the Machine to Machine (M2M) communication like those in our initiatives. Different network providers interpreted these regulations in different ways resulting in significant confusions. There was also a need to physically change the SIM cards and the APN setting for the same. This acted as a strong push back since it required us to either recall the monitors or change the SIM cards/reprogram monitors at site. Our monitors did not have the facility of changing the monitor settings over-the-air (OTA).

Going Places

ESMI's idea of providing evidence based feedback on quality of supply also found takers in other countries facing similar supply quality issues. Based on our experience of developing the monitors and the back-end systems, we collaborated with the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the local institutions in four countries (Indonesia, Tajikistan, Tanzania, and Kenya) to implement pilot level projects. The monitors were separately programmed to work with the mobile networks available in those countries. Four separate back-end systems including servers and analytics were developed to suit the local needs. The monitors were then tested rigorously in each country to make sure that they work in local conditions before deployments. Our team visited each of the local partner institutions and trained them to independently manage the system. This included training on monitor installation, troubleshooting, testing, ensuring data receipt on the server, daily monitoring etc.

Summing up

ESMI and eMARC have shown the utility of remote monitoring initiatives. Public data on the quality of supply can increase the distribution companies' accountability while data on electricity consumption can provide useful insights on its patterns. Our experience shows that setting up and maintaining such a system is possible but cumbersome and extremely challenging in the Indian situation. Technology has rapidly advanced and costs have fallen down significantly since we started in 2014. With large scale smart meter rollouts across the globe several companies can provide required solutions for monitoring electricity supply. This has also led to significant changes in availability of cheaper solutions, advanced servers which can cater to the requirements, special sim cards to allow machine to machine communication and also ease in deployment owing to increased awareness and acceptance.However, challenges related to people management and mobile networks still remain significant. We really hope any replication or scale-up of initiatives like ours can benefit from these experiences.

Contributors: Shweta Kulkarni, Abhiram Sahasrabudhe, Aditya Chunekar, Shantanu Dixit

Please contact Shweta Kulkarni (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) for questions or comments.

Suggested Citation: Prayas (Energy Group), ‘Remote monitoring: Simple idea, Herculean task’, part of blog-series on ESMI and eMARC initiative, August 2021.

Please click here to read the other posts in this series.