The Hark Platform

A cloud-based sensor platform to connect to, analyse and optimise industrial assets, buildings and energy in real-time.

Climate Change Mitigation Advancing Net Zero Solutions

Problem Addressed

The Hark Platform is helping alert Energy Managers and Asset Operators to abnormalities across their estate, informing actions such as preventative maintenance, regulatory compliance, asset control and energy management.

Solution Overview

The Hark Platform is an interconnected cloud-based sensor platform that allows users to monitor and gain insight into their environmental data in real-time. There are 3 core components which contain features that can be used:

Hark Connect: Hark Connect is edge, on-premise or cloud deployable software that allows technology teams, industrial teams, and facilities teams easily connect to industrial assets through industry standard protocols. Features include the following:

Connectivity via Industrial Protocols such as Modbus, BACnet, OPC-UA, MQTT and more
Data aggregation from sensors and edge devices
Secure cloud and on-premise data bridging of real-time data
Use as secure MQTT broker for further integrations
Proprietary protocols can be deployed through Hark Connect to create a standardised messaging and telemetry system
Store and Forward features built-in for ensuring data availability in the event of temporary outages

Hark Analytics: Real-time remote device and asset monitoring, agnostic of vendor and type. Supporting enterprise, industrial and SCADA protocols, have a unified view across your estate. Visualise the health of an asset in real-time. Features include the following:

Setup Locations, Groups, Sensors
Real-time Monitoring and Health Indication
Real-time Alerting and Alarming Functions
Self-Service Custom Dashboarding and Visualisations with drag-and-drop widgets
Trending, Graphing and Sensor and Data Statistics
Built in message bus that can forward data onto other messaging systems

Hark Energy Tools: Analyse and track energy performance from half-hourly data sources such as Energy Meters, Gas Meters, Water Meters. Analyse profiles and trends across an energy estate from 1 – 100,000 energy meters. Features include the following:

Energy Profiling and Analysis
Automatic Metering and Targeting
Data Quality Analysis
Automatic Consumption Analysis and Reporting
Forecasting and Alerting
Cloud and Data Integrations

Who Uses The Hark Platform? The Hark Platform is a cloud platform that allows Energy Managers and Asset Operators to easily connect to, monitor and control their Buildings, Energy Meters and Industrial Process assets. Today there are tens of thousands of assets connected to the Hark Platform within Supermarket, Industrial Manufacturers, Utilities and Facilities Management.

Company name

Hark

UK availability

Yes

Solution launch date

2016

Cost Benefit

The Hark Platform deployments can range from a few assets to 100,000 of assets. Depending on the assets and communication protocols used on those assets would dictate the amount of effort to produce connectivity and also the potential hardware that would be used in the solution architecture. Typically, a Proof of Concept (PoC) can be started for between £20,000 – £30,000 which would include a small number of assets, some edge hardware for connectivity and a limited use software licence for The Hark Platform. On average a PoC lasts for 3 months.

Hark software licences can range from a few hundred pounds per month to tens of thousands of pounds per month and this is based on:

The number of sensors (data points) connected
The number of gateways (virtual or physical)
Any required SLAs
Hosting and Storage
Professional Services or expanded Technical Support

In terms of ROI, most business are able to see value within the 3-month PoC and return on investment scales depending on the action taken from each asset group.

As an example, Sainsburys are saving ~5% per store in lighting costs and carbon alone, based on 600+ stores and 24,000 assets. Refer to case study below.

Other customers generally see savings in the region of 20% on their cost and consumption.

Demo of Hark Connect & Hark Analytics – https://vimeo.com/422731699 and of Hark Energy Tools – https://vimeo.com/585734704