What is CDI-Projects and the LUKA Energy Management System?
CDI-Projects is all about innovation in energy management, building a world powered by renewable energy. They specialize in developing and installing KNX building automation solutions for residential homes and smart company buildings. Using the internationally recognized KNX standard, CDI-Projects ensures seamless communication between devices and installations. Their flagship system, LUKA, is a Central Energy Management System (CEMS) designed to monitor, control, and optimize energy flows in homes or buildings—all from one central app. It’s about making energy work smarter, not harder.
Main Benefits of Energy Management with LUKA
Energy management isn’t just a buzzword—it’s the key to a successful energy transition. Here’s what LUKA brings to the table:
- Maximize self-consumption: Use as much of your self-generated solar energy as possible.
- Reduce capacity tariffs: Avoid those costly peak consumption charges.
- Dynamic tariffs: Draw electricity from the grid when it’s cheapest.
- Imbalance market participation: Help balance the grid and get compensated for it.
- Automated control: Save time by letting LUKA handle energy flows intelligently.
- Energy sharing: Share green energy within your community or building in real time.
How LUKA Works: Smart Control and Communication
At its core, LUKA collects data from all components in a building—solar panels, home batteries, heat pumps, charging stations—and processes it to make smart decisions. Without a central system, these devices might work against each other, but LUKA integrates them seamlessly. For example, it predicts solar generation based on weather forecasts to reserve battery capacity, ensuring maximum self-consumption and peak shaving. It even manages consumption by running heat pumps or charging cars when the sun is shining bright. Pretty clever, right?
Why Avoid Injection and Manage Consumption Peaks?
Times are changing. Compensation for injecting energy back into the grid is dropping, and sometimes you might even pay to inject during negative price periods. LUKA helps avoid this by curtailing solar production when necessary and smartly managing your devices. Plus, since January 2023, capacity tariffs mean you pay for peak consumption. LUKA tackles this by using your home battery to smooth out those peaks, slowing car charging, or pausing heat pumps temporarily. It’s all about saving money and being grid-friendly.
Artificial Intelligence and Continuous Monitoring
LUKA isn’t just a static system—it learns. Using machine learning algorithms, it understands your installation’s unique quirks: the shadow of a tree on your panels, your daily consumption habits, and more. This intelligence helps optimize energy flows and even monitor the efficiency of your heat pump. If the heat pump runs inefficiently for months, it could cost thousands, but LUKA keeps an eye on that, alerting you to potential issues before they get expensive.
Project Impact: Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Linked to CDI-Projects
- SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy – Promoting renewable energy use and energy efficiency.
- SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure – Developing smart energy management technologies.
- SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities – Enabling smarter, greener buildings.
- SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production – Reducing energy waste and optimizing consumption.
- SDG 13: Climate Action – Lowering carbon footprints through efficient energy use.
KNX Integration: The Backbone of Smart Building Automation
KNX is the only globally recognized standard for home and building automation, and CDI-Projects leverages this to its fullest. From lighting and shading to heating, security, and energy devices like charging stations and home batteries, KNX enables everything to talk to each other. If a building already has KNX wiring, adding LUKA is a breeze. This integration means users can control their entire smart environment easily via touchscreens, tablets, or smartphones—making energy management not just smart, but also user-friendly and flexible.
