“Makahiki+WattDepot: An open source software stack for next generation energy research and education”, by Philip M. Johnson, Yongwen Xu, Robert S. Brewer, Carleton A. Moore, George E. Lee, and Andrea Connell was published at the 2013 Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Sustainability (ICT4S), Zurich, Switzerland.

Abstract: The accelerating world-wide growth in demand for energy has led to the conceptualization of a “smart grid”, where a variety of decentralized, intermittent, renewable energy sources (for example, wind, solar, and wave) would provide most or all of the power required by small-scale “microgrids” servicing hundreds to thousands of consumers. Such a smart grid will require consumers to transition from passive to active participation in order to optimize the efficiency and effectiveness of the grid’s electrical capabilities.

This paper presents a software stack comprised of two open source software systems, Makahiki and WattDepot, which together are designed to engage consumers in energy issues through a combination of education, real-time feedback, incentives, and game mechanics. We detail the novel features of Makahiki and WattDepot, along with our initial experiences using them to implement an energy challenge called the Kukui Cup.

The complete paper is available here.