In-house work · Energy & utilities
IoT Smart Energy MVP
Delivered an MVP in four months that proved smart-home demand response to national utilities and won a continued roadmap.
- Built by
- Our head engineer, in-house at a previous employer
- Industry
- Energy & utilities
- Timeline
- 4 months
- Year
- 2023
- Platforms
- iOS, Android, Web
Results at a glance
The challenge
- Establishing real-time, low-latency communication between the utility grid control system and thousands of individual smart home devices
- Keeping user data private and secure while continuously tracking household energy consumption and savings metrics
- Achieving interoperability across Home Assistant, Matter, and other competing smart home protocols with a single unified interface
- Designing a cross-platform mobile experience that works identically on iOS and Android within a tight MVP timeline
- Processing high volumes of concurrent IoT events without message loss or delivery delays during peak demand periods
About the project
Collaborated with national utility companies to build a Desktop and Mobile MVP demonstrating the power of the Internet of Things (IoT). The application integrates with Home Assistant and Matter standards to allow utility providers to trigger 'demand response events,' automatically adjusting smart devices to lower power surges and prevent outages.
What was delivered
Scope
- MVP strategy
- Cross-platform mobile app
- IoT integration
- Event streaming
- Stakeholder dashboard
Our approach
Utilized Apache Kafka for high-throughput, fault-tolerant event streaming between grid operators and connected home devices
Built a cross-platform mobile interface with React Native, Expo, and NativeWind that shares a single codebase across iOS and Android
Implemented secure, encrypted API handshakes for device control commands with per-device authentication tokens
Designed an abstraction layer over Home Assistant and Matter protocols so the app communicates with any compliant smart device
Created a real-time dashboard showing aggregate energy savings, device response rates, and event history for utility stakeholders
The outcome
- Successfully validated the Demand Response model for city planners and national utility providers through live device demonstrations
- Demonstrated a measurable reduction in peak energy load during controlled testing periods across connected households
- Delivered a polished MVP within four months that secured stakeholder buy-in for a continued product roadmap
- Achieved sub-second device response times from grid command to smart home adjustment during demand response events
- Provided utility partners with actionable data on household participation rates and energy savings potential
Built with
React Native
TypeScript- NativeWind
Expo
Kafka
Home Assistant- Matter
Appwrite
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