In summer, we usually turn down the air conditioners to make the room colder. When doing this, do you know how much electricity is consumed? In recent years, Taipower continued to deploy its Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and connected it to the Taipower App, allowing users to get a sense of the electricity consumption of various applications. Since 2018, Taipower has collaborated with the Institute for Information Industry to develop the country's first AI and big data-based electricity consumption model. In June this year, the "residential electricity consumption analysis" feature of the Taipower app was launched. According to the big data of electricity consumption automatically returned by the AMI, the electricity consumption (such as the percentage of amount of electricity used) of five major household appliances including air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, TVs, and water dispensers can be calculated, making the application a great and popular electricity-saving tool during summer. Taipower further collaborated with home appliance manufacturers to provide consumer information on the replacement of old home appliances with new ones. The first promotion is Taipower's exclusive discounts on Tatung electronics and appliances, which will be launched this month.
Taipower said that after the AMI users download the Taipower app and link it with their Taipower account number, they can access the smart electricity consumption analysis feature. According to Taipower's statistics, by the beginning of August 2022, a total of 1.73 million sets of AMI have been installed in Taiwan, and more than 100 million entries of electricity consumption data can be returned in one day. AMI users who want to perform a health check on home appliances and learn more about their electricity consumption can simply fill in questionnaire data, such as how many family members live in the home and the kinds home appliances used, into the Taipower app's Residential Electricity Consumption Analysis interface. After that, the AI system will begin to regularly analyze the electricity consumption of home appliances. This not only allows users to identify the power hogging equipment among the 5 major electrical appliances, but also provides comparative information about the electricity consumption patterns of users, which can serve as a useful reference for the general public to adjust their use of electricity or to further replace old and inefficient appliances.
Branching away from the conventional home energy management system where users must purchase smart appliances or additional smart sockets to gain an understanding of electricity consumption data, Taipower has collaborated with the Institute for Information Industry's Digital Transformation Research Institute adopted "non-intrusive load monitoring" (NILM) technology actively developed and used by advanced countries, and combined it with the electricity consumption data measured by AMI to build Taiwan's first AI and big data model, which can directly provide the electricity consumption data of five major electrical home appliances without the installation of additional devices. Taipower stated that this seemingly easy technology is in fact the accumulation of 5 years of research efforts. In 2020, it won the Presidential Hackathon "Excellent Team Award," and now the research results have been successfully realized.
Taipower explained that in the initial stage of the development, some users were selected for analysis. The electricity consumption data returned by their AMI at home every 15 minutes covered appliances of different brands, models and service years, and the data were used to gain an understanding of users' electricity consumption patterns, such as when they turned on a TV and turned off an air conditioner. In addition, to improve the accuracy of this technology, smart sockets were installed in the users' homes, and the real electricity consumption data of home appliances were collected every minute for checking and making comparisons. From all of this data, an AI statistical model was built. After 5 years of calculation and analysis based on billions of data entries, this super-smart AI model can determine the individual electricity consumption (such as the percentage and amount of electricity used) of 5 major home appliances, including air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, TVs and water dispensers, based on the AMI data. Moreover, the model is still being improved through smart learning.
Taipower launched its exclusive app in 2016 and has continued to update it. The number of downloads has exceeded 1.4 million. The app provides useful features such as bill payment, power outage repair, electricity application and management. In addition to the electricity consumption analysis feature for 5 major home appliances, the app further meets the needs of the public by providing discount information on the replacement of old home appliances with new ones. The first promotion is Taipower's exclusive discounts on Tatung electronics and appliances, which will be launched this month. Taipower has collaborated with Tatung Consumer Products for the first time. Starting from this month until December 31, Taipower will provide exclusive discounts for AMI users who have accessed Taipower's residential electricity consumption analysis service. In the future, Taipower welcomes major home appliance manufacturers and e-commerce platforms to join in on collaboration, making electricity use more convenient, smarter and more practical.
Spokesperson: Chief Engineer, Chin-Chung Wu
Tel: (02) 2366-6271 / 0910-192-766
Email: u850899@taipower.com.tw
Contact Person:
Deputy Director of Taiwan Power Research Institute, Guan-Chih Pu
Tel: (02) 2360-1004 / 0939-292-080
Email: u630564@taipower.com.tw
Deputy Director of Business Department (Taipower app), Chung-Ming Chiou
Tel: (02) 2366-6651/ 0910-339-629
Email: u910265@taipower.com.tw