The Challenge
RedEarth’s ability to monitor and control the performance of its off-grid, on-grid and hybrid battery storage systems was restricted by and subject to customers’ Wi-Fi networks, risking disruptions.The Solution
RedEarth deployed Thinxtra’s data insights platform and multi-carrier SIM cards to maintain full-time visibility into the status of systems across homes and businesses.The Benefits
Teaming with Thinxtra has given RedEarth invaluable data insights to ensure devices are online, determine energy use, and rapidly troubleshoot any unexpected errors.RedEarth is an Australian energy storage company that provides scalable off-grid, on-grid, and hybrid battery storage systems to the nation’s residential, commercial and industrial sectors. In addition to powering homes and businesses, RedEarth offers the opportunity to make money from customers’ excess solar power, through enterprise power plants (EPP) for larger organisations and private power plants (PPP) for home-owners.
RedEarth’s Private Power Plant also provides value-add services, such as wholesale market trading, peer-to-peer energy sharing and optimised EV charging, all optimised through their custom cutting-edge trading algorithm.
Addressing Connectivity Challenges in Energy Storage
A key part of RedEarth’s offerings is the ability to continuously monitor and control its products via internet connectivity. The company can therefore consistently track the performance of the battery systems, while providing access to key data insights to ensure products are not only operating as intended, but evaluate areas in which it can drive further value through the Private Power Plant modules, which are updated regularly.
RedEarth previously relied on customers’ personal Wi-Fi connections to maintain this level of control over its products. However, it was a method riddled with challenges – there were issues related to user passwords, as well as roadblocks during internet service provider (ISP) disruptions.
Any password change or internet service drop-out would eliminate visibility into product status, making monitoring and support challenging. This led RedEarth to the decision to move away from its reliance on Wi-Fi and instead install single carrier 4G SIM cards with no redundancy into its battery energy storage systems.
Although the transition was effective, it came with its own challenges – the SIM cards were restricted to a single network and incurred high data costs due to restrictive contract terms and the inability to ‘pay-as-you-go’.
“The reality is that the world is racing ahead and electrifying everything at an incredible pace. RedEarth's priority is to both future-proof homes and businesses and also provide customers with a better return on investment and put serious value into their investments. Partnering with Thinxtra amplifies that value proposition as we have around-the-clock access to previously untapped insights to ensure our battery storage systems are working as they should, as well as identifying ways we can give even more value to each customer based around their unique usage habits and requirements.”
Chris Winter,
CTO at RedEarth Energy Storage
Enhancing Performance with Multi-Carrier SIMs
Following a market evaluation, RedEarth teamed up with Thinxtra to leverage its comprehensive platform and multi-carrier SIM cards, ensuring flexible and reliable real-time connectivity and data transmission from battery energy storage systems via the cloud using the IoT.
This means RedEarth’s customer service and support teams can always view when devices are online, determine energy use, rapidly troubleshoot any unexpected errors, and perform routine firmware updates. They can also activate/deactivate based on data usage, and automate SIM deactivate if data use exceeds predetermined limits.
Since introducing Thinxtra’s pay-as-you-go, multi-carrier SIM solution, RedEarth has reduced its overall connectivity charges by more than 30 per cent, generating significant cost savings across its customer base. With Thinxtra’s solution, RedEarth also benefited from enhanced security and data sovereignty, ensuring devices stay connected and data is transmitted securely onshore.
This robust support allows RedEarth to provide faster, more efficient service to their customers, reducing downtime and improving overall system performance – all the while maintaining protection over confidential operational and customer usage data.
In addition to the connectivity benefits, RedEarth’s ability to remotely monitor and analyse its battery energy systems in real time has generated greater transparency over customers’ usage, allowing it to understand storage and consumption patterns to optimise input and output, and determine whether users can benefit from value-add services. These outcomes are pivotal at a time when businesses and consumers continue to face high energy costs and increasingly looking to energy alternatives to ease the financial burden.
“Australian consumers and businesses are increasingly turning to alternative energy options as the technology advances and TCO decreases. RedEarth has delivered high-value battery storage options for years; garnering granular data insights from IoT and the reliable connectivity that comes with it has enabled the company to take the next step in driving value for its customers - by not only ensuring the products they purchase are always functioning as expected, by finding ways to boost ROI.”
Sam Sharief,
COO at Thinxtra
