Central customer portal and IoT platform for a digital user experience

Kostal

>> The energy transition can only succeed if products and services are optimally coordinated. This requires offering installers and customers consistent and efficient digital solutions and processes. With the KOSTAL Solar Terminal and the KOSTAL Solar Portal, we were able to lay the foundation for this in a joint development symbiosis with adesso.


Thomas Vogel | Head of Product Management BU-PV KOSTAL

Project

Standardising digital customer experiences and using IoT data efficiently – KOSTAL took on these challenges together with adesso and implemented not just one, but two interlinked digitalisation projects. The first step was to develop the KOSTAL Solar Terminal, a central single sign-on customer portal (SSO) that simplifies access to various IT systems and centralises user management.

Building on this, the new KOSTAL Solar Portal was created, a modern, scalable IoT customer application for the management and monitoring of over 300,000 photovoltaic inverters. By using cloud-based technologies, KOSTAL strengthened its own independence in operation and further development, created the basis for building up technological know-how and now offers its customers a consistent, powerful digital experience.

Challenge

Heterogeneous IT system landscape without central user management

Various independent applications made access difficult and prevented a consistent user experience and support for these applications.


Processing and migration of large amounts of IoT data

Over 300,000 devices and several terabytes of data per day placed high demands on scalability, data storage and efficiency.


Ensuring a smooth transition and establishing and expanding system expertise

The new solution had to be introduced seamlessly while also laying the foundation for further expanding technological expertise.

Solution

Project highlights

  • Development and successful presentation of the KOSTAL Solar Terminal at the Intersolar trade fair
  • Commissioning and implementation of the KOSTAL Solar Portal in half the time originally planned for the project
  • Reduction in the data load of operating costs compared to the existing system

Objectives

  • Development of a modern IoT solution with high performance, extensive functions and seamless mapping of all essential inventory functions
  • Support for all KOSTAL inverters and peripherals, regardless of the generation and age of the hardware
  • Ensuring sovereignty over all IT components and flexible further development by KOSTAL
  • Increased efficiency through optimised processes and reduction of data volumes
  • Reduction of operating costs


Concept

  • Detailed design of all functional and technical aspects based on user and data flows in the KOSTAL Solar Terminal and KOSTAL Solar Portal
  • Creation of clearly structured documentation in Confluence with detailed feature concepts, clear visualisations and process representations
  • Determination of around 80% of the requirements for the KOSTAL Solar Portal through adesso's own analyses


Technologies used

  • Microsoft Azure Cloud, Azure B2C and Azure Data Explorer (ADX)
  • OAuth 2.0, SAML SSO for secure, central authentication in the KOSTAL Terminal and its connected digital services
  • Angular as front-end technology
  • Kotlin and Spring Boot for powerful and maintenance-friendly backend services
  • Kubernetes for orchestrating corresponding services
>> After the design and PoC for the KOSTAL Solar Portal, it was clear that we would actually need twice the development time for such a project. With strong support from the experts at KOSTAL and a great team effort from the adesso engineers, we nevertheless took on the task and made the impossible possible. Things got a little bumpy towards the end – but we mastered that together and delivered – for a satisfied customer.


Dr Michael Westermeier | Project Manager, adesso SE

The KOSTAL Group is a globally active family-owned company headquartered in Lüdenscheid. Since its foundation in 1912, KOSTAL has been developing and producing high-quality electronic and mechatronic solutions in the automotive, industrial and photovoltaic sectors. KOSTAL Solar Electric GmbH, part of the KOSTAL Group, is one of the leading suppliers of innovative inverter technologies. These are used in both private households and large-scale commercial photovoltaic systems. In addition to hardware, KOSTAL also offers comprehensive digital solutions for operation, maintenance and monitoring to provide optimal support to customers worldwide.
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