visakhapatnam researchers at the national institute of technology andhra pradesh have developed an edge computing stack to monitor and control electrical loads through smart powerline communications this device is an internetofthings iot based electrical switch designed to check the consumption of electrical appliances nitandhra pradesh is planning to commercialise this patented product by establishing a startup to make it grow as an individual entity the device is unique due to its hybridised approach of power line communication and wifi and has published an indian patent it has been developed by dr sri phani krishna karri assistant professor department of electrical engineering along with ln sastry varanasi research scholar dr phani krishna said that the system addresses energy mismanagement at the consumer end which is a problem for both the utility company and customer this product is intended to optimally manage electrical energy and monitor appliance level health by utilising the existing electrical infrastructure this will also reduce the recurring maintenance cost and the power bill he said the system consists of two modules namely master and slave the master device communicates with a mobile device through a wireless medium the slave devices are directly connected to electrical appliances which sense the voltage current power and power factor of each appliance the sensed information is communicated to the master device through a power line communication the system uses existing electrical infrastructure as a communication medium inside the house or the organization which records consumption of each electrical appliance and makes it available for the user to monitor and control via a mobile device remotelyl n sastry said they are planning to commercialise in the form of a startup however for a wider outreach we are looking at licensing the technology to develop various products he added director nitap prof csp rao appreciated the work done by the faculty member and the scholar and encouraged the staff for such interdisciplinary collaborative research work in emerging applications