Part of the pebbles demonstrator is the so-called edge device. This is a prototype developed for the project based on a mini-computer. The edge device is used to connect the real participants of the demonstrator with the app and the cloud services of the market platform. The participants had to install the measuring devices on site, connect them to the edge device and establish a VPN connection to the pebbles network.

On the one hand, the installed assets such as a photovoltaic system or a heat pump are controlled by the edge device. On the other hand, the recorded measured values ​​of consumption and generation are sent both to the transaction platform and to the energy management system.

The edge device not only takes over the sending but is also responsible for the processing of the data. It assigns further parameters to the various measured values, such as the type of asset or the type of generation and forms the 15-minute mean values ​​that are required for trading. The edge device thus provides the entire data basis of the real participants for all other systems.