BlogAbout eMARC
Residential electricity consumption accounts for about a quarter of the total electricity consumed in India. This is expected to increase with rapid electrification, increasing urbanization and growing incomes. Meeting this demand only by generating more electricity is detrimental for the economy, the environment, and the global climate. A better way is to manage the demand for electricity cost-effectively. To do this, policy makers and electricity distribution companies need a better understanding of how people use electricity. India lacks the household level data on consumption that can facilitate such understanding. This project addresses this gap by recording the electricity use data of a sample of households.
Under eMARC, two monitors are typically installed in a home. One is installed by a trained electrician on the main line and the second monitor is connected to one specific appliance like refrigerator or air-conditioner to monitor their minute-wise electricity consumption. Using IoT based system, data is collected on a server, analysed, and presented every month on this website. Each monitor consumes less than 1 unit of electricity per month. We have started with urban Pune and will eventually extend to other urban, semi-urban, and rural areas in India.
FAQ
1. What is an eMARC Monitor?
The eMARC monitor has the capability of measuring minute by minute energy consumption and active power data and transmitting the data over the GSM network. The device is customised to meet the specific requirements and uses a class 1.0 meter which complies with the ISI3779:1999 specifications.
2. How is data collected from eMARC?
Each eMARC monitor has the capability of transmitting data over the GPRS network. These devices send data to a central server at frequent intervals. This data is then analysed and presented to users on the website.
3. Where are eMARC monitors installed?
The eMARC monitors are installed in residential spaces; the project aims are recording residential energy consumption. Two monitors are installed in each household, one on the mainline which captures electricity consumption of the entire household and another on an appliance in the household. The monitors are installed in volunteer households.
4. Is the data available on the website available for download?
The anonymized usage related data will be made available on this website for download in the near future.
5. Privacy Policy
We store the personal data separately from the household characteristics and usage data. The personal data will not be shared with anyone unless required by the law.
Terms of Use
eMARC provides information on electricity usage by households. Personal details of these households collected under eMARC, will not be shared with anyone unless required by law.
Neither Prayas, nor any of its agents, contractors and employees can be held responsible for use of any data or information made available through eMARC. Anybody is welcome to make full use of the information available on eMARC website for any non-commercial, academic and research purpose, provided source of the information is clearly acknowledged.
We will highly appreciate if we are intimated of use of this data and a copy of the publication, paper or report using this data is shared with us at emarc@prayaspune.org
We appreciate the support provided by Altizon Systems in developing eMARC monitors and the IoT system customized to our requirements. We also acknowledge all the volunteers who allowed us to install the eMARC monitors in their homes. We also extend our thanks to Webassic IT Solutions for the website development and the interactive visualizations.
We would like to hear from you
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Address: Prayas, Energy Group.
Unit III A & B, Devgiri,
Joshi Railway Museum lane,
Kothrud Industrial Area,
Kothrud, Pune, MH 411038 INDIA - Email: emarc@prayaspune.org
- 91-20-25420720, 91-20-65205726