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 deployed across geo-distributed sites including photovoltaic plants and transformer substations. As the fleet grew, so did the complexity of keeping it operational: manual deployment and configuration processes were consuming significant engineering time, cybersecurity requirements were tightening across critical infrastructure, and clients increasingly demanded the ability to manage their own devices locally without depending on Enerclic for every intervention.

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

Challenges

Managing thousands of geo-distributed edge sites with diverse connectivity and client requirements pushed the limits of Enerclic's existing approach. The four key challenges were:

1. Time-intensive manual deployment processes: the existing setup relied on a custom Ubuntu Server OS that required individual configuration, updates, and maintenance for each device, making fleet-wide operations slow and resource-heavy.
2. Cybersecurity exposure across critical infrastructure: as a provider operating in critical energy infrastructure, Enerclic required robust, certified protection against vulnerabilities across all devices and data transmissions.
3. Lack of client autonomy: clients had no way to manage their remote units locally and depended entirely on Enerclic for every configuration change or intervention, creating operational bottlenecks on both sides.
4. Configuration management at scale: ensuring consistent configurations and timely updates across thousands of units was impractical without automation, creating risk of service disruptions and configuration drift.

Solution

As Enerclic continued to expand its fleet, Barbara's platform became the standard for deploying and managing new edge nodes, providing a centralized foundation to automate operations at scale and meet the strict cybersecurity requirements of critical energy infrastructure. Barbara's platform gave Enerclic's team a single point of control to 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, eliminating the need for on-site technical intervention and enabling faster, consistent deployments across the fleet.
• Remote update management: allowed Enerclic to push firmware and application updates to all devices remotely and at scale, ensuring every unit ran the latest software without requiring manual access.
• Batch configuration: enabled fleet-wide configuration changes to be applied simultaneously across thousands of devices, reducing the risk of configuration drift and ensuring operational consistency.
• Device telemetry and monitoring: provided continuous visibility into the health and status of all deployed nodes and applications, enabling proactive detection of issues before they affected service.
• Cybersecurity layer: Barbara Core provided certified protection across all device communications, with support for secure authentication and encrypted data transmission throughout 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 ensured all devices remained up to date and uniformly configured, reducing service disruption risk across the entire fleet.
3. Cybersecurity posture strengthened across critical infrastructure: all device communications were secured under 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 eliminated the operational bottlenecks that had limited growth, while giving both Enerclic and its clients the visibility, control, and autonomy they 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 to develop AI-driven predictive models for energy consumption, solar production forecasting, and battery management — building on the edge infrastructure already in place to meet the evolving demands of the energy market.

About the Company

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

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