Generating real time data in WordPress – online power meter
Image courtesy of Sarah Wilson @BeaHorn254
Harlaw Hydro delivers a fixed return for investors and with profits invested into the village Balerno in Edinburgh. I have been involved in two phases of this work. The first to support community crowd funding then, once the hydro was in place and went into operation, provide real time generation data online.
Phase 1:
The original website to develop Harlaw Hydro digital project was to support community outreach program and social engagement to deliver investors and investment. Using a combination of the website and social media the digital channel supported a hugely succesful crowd funding campaign. Harlaw Hydro overreached its initial funding requirement and became the first ever fully equity funded project of its kind.
Phase 2:
The second phase of the project moved away from digital outreach and into delivering digital service once the hydro was up and running.
‘We want to be able to deliver live generation data online’.
The first question to overcome was ‘Could it be done’ followed quickly by ‘How could it be done’.
Given the infrastructure, we needed to understand how we would connect to the generator to extract the data then how to present the data on the website in real time. It took a bit of time to work out all of the above, sourcing the technical skills mix to deliver what was required and time to implement the solution.
Today (1 September 2015) is the official launch of Harlaw Hydro and I’m delighted that the real time Power Meter beta is in place. To our knowledge this is a unique solution and presents the information in an easy to understand format whilst also being responsive to different screen sizes & mobile devices. And although there was development time required to interface and extract the data the visual aspects have been delivered through available WordPress plugins.
The model we have used is scalable so if you have a similar project you need support with please get in touch.
