Edge Orchestration for Distributed Energy Infrastructure

Business Overview

Enerclic, a leading integrator in the energy sector, manages a portfolio of over 7,000 telemetered units across geographically distributed sites, including photovoltaic plants and transformer substations. As the fleet grew, keeping it operational became increasingly complex. Manual deployment and configuration processes consumed significant engineering time, cybersecurity requirements for critical infrastructure became more demanding, and clients increasingly wanted to manage their own devices locally without relying on Enerclic for every intervention.

To address these challenges, Enerclic turned to Barbara and adopted Barbara's platform as the standard for new device deployments. This allowed the company to centralize remote management, automate operations at scale, and give clients the autonomy they needed.

Challenges

Managing thousands of geographically distributed edge sites with varied connectivity and client requirements pushed Enerclic's existing approach to its limits. The four key challenges were:

1. Time-intensive manual deployment processes: The existing setup relied on a custom Ubuntu Server OS that required each device to be configured, updated, and maintained individually, making fleet-wide operations slow and resource-intensive.
2. Cybersecurity exposure across critical infrastructure: As a provider operating within critical energy infrastructure, Enerclic needed robust, certified protection against vulnerabilities across every device and data transmission.
3. Lack of client autonomy: Clients could not manage their remote units locally and depended entirely on Enerclic for every configuration change or intervention, creating operational bottlenecks for both sides.
4. Configuration management at scale: Without automation, maintaining consistent configurations and timely updates across thousands of units was impractical, increasing the risk of service disruption and configuration drift.

Solution

As Enerclic continued to expand its fleet, Barbara's platform became the standard for deploying and managing new edge nodes. It provided a centralized foundation for automating operations at scale while meeting the strict cybersecurity requirements of critical energy infrastructure. Through a single point of control, Enerclic's team could provision, manage, update, and monitor new devices and containerized applications without requiring on-site intervention.

The key platform capabilities that made this deployment possible were:

• Zero-Touch Provisioning: Automated the onboarding and initial configuration of edge nodes, removing the need for on-site technical intervention and supporting faster, more consistent deployments across the fleet.
• Remote update management: Allowed Enerclic to send firmware and application updates to every device remotely and at scale, ensuring that each unit ran the latest software without requiring manual access.
• Batch configuration: Enabled configuration changes to be applied simultaneously across thousands of devices, reducing the risk of configuration drift and maintaining operational consistency throughout the fleet.
• Device telemetry and monitoring: Provided continuous visibility into the health and status of all deployed nodes and applications, allowing issues to be detected proactively before they affected service.
• Cybersecurity layer: Barbara Core provided certified protection for all device communications, with support for secure authentication and encrypted data transmission across the fleet.

Results

Using Barbara's platform, Enerclic transformed how it deploys and manages new devices across its distributed fleet:

1. Manual on-site interventions eliminated: Remote provisioning, configuration, and updates removed the need for physical access to devices, freeing engineering capacity previously consumed by routine maintenance tasks.
2. Consistent and secure fleet operations at scale: Batch configuration and automated update management kept every device up to date and consistently configured, reducing the risk of service disruption across the fleet.
3. Cybersecurity posture strengthened across critical infrastructure: All device communications were secured through Barbara Core's certified cybersecurity layer, meeting the stringent requirements of critical energy infrastructure.

Testimonial

"Barbara has been instrumental in large-scale deployments, providing a powerful layer of abstraction that simplifies the setup of edge devices while enabling seamless integration of advanced algorithms. It's the ideal partner for managing critical systems like photovoltaic plants and transformer substations."

— Adriano Aguilera García, CTO, Enerclic

Conclusions

Using Barbara's platform, Enerclic transformed the management of its distributed fleet from a manual, resource-intensive operation into a centralized, automated, and scalable infrastructure. The deployment removed the operational bottlenecks that had limited growth while giving both Enerclic and its clients the visibility, control, and autonomy needed to manage thousands of remote devices with confidence.

Looking ahead, Enerclic is expanding its use of the platform to integrate more advanced algorithms into transformer substations and develop AI-driven predictive models for energy consumption, solar production forecasting, and battery management. These initiatives build on the edge infrastructure already in place and will help the company meet the evolving demands of the energy market.

About the Company

Headquartered in Málaga, Enerclic is a Spanish engineering company with more than 17 years of experience in the energy sector, specializing in hardware manufacturing and software development.

The company provides specialized services including technical support, remote meter reading, load management, process control, and advanced supervision centre operations certified by REE (Red Eléctrica Española).