A building that understands its own energy.
Save energy and support the grid — without handing over control.
ORLA learns how a specific building responds to weather, occupancy, setpoints and equipment. It optimises comfort and cost locally, then calculates how much demand can be shifted or curtailed safely.
Flexibility starts inside the building.
A VPP does not need to control devices. It needs reliable information about what a building can do — for how long, with what confidence and within the owner’s rules.
The platform sees power. ORLA understands the building.
A central platform does not know whether a room is occupied, how quickly the building cools down or how much energy recovery will require. ORLA combines history, live conditions and user constraints.
The result is a live flexibility envelope — not a generic kW claim, but an executable response.
Response range
How much load can increase or decrease, and for how long.
Execution conditions
Lead time, response time, comfort margin and operational constraints.
Confidence and rebound
Expected delivery confidence and post-event recovery consumption.
Buildings run on clocks, not reality.
Rigid schedules and disconnected devices heat empty zones, start equipment too early, create avoidable peaks and waste the building’s thermal inertia.
Energy disappears into routine
- operation outside occupied hours
- manual setpoints and overlapping schedules
- no response to tariffs or weather
Comfort is hard to predict
- zones respond at different rates
- thermal mass is left unused
- devices create coincident peaks
of commercial building peak load may be temporarily managed according to PNNL research. This is a sector benchmark, not a site-specific guarantee. PNNL source ↗
Learn first. Control only when ready.
Deployment moves from data to autonomy without a leap of faith. Every stage has a clear outcome and safety boundary.
Connect BMS, thermostats, meters, weather and occupancy. Add wireless sensors only where needed.
Model inertia, heating and cooling rates, zone dependencies and preparation cost.
Compare decisions with live automation in shadow mode, without controlling equipment.
After validation, coordinate selected devices within agreed hard limits.
Share current potential, timing, confidence, constraints and expected rebound with the VPP.
Keep control. Share the outcome.
The owner defines the rules. ORLA enforces them locally. A VPP can send a need or price signal without receiving direct access to thermostats and controllers.
Hard participation limits
- temperature ranges and excluded zones
- hours, comfort and process priorities
- minimum battery state of charge
- price and participation conditions
The best local response
- reduce ventilation or shift water heating
- pre-cool or pre-heat selected zones
- coordinate PV, BESS or EV charging
- retain fallback to existing automation
Start with HVAC. Grow into a local energy system.
HVAC is the natural first step: a large controllable load that turns thermal mass into an energy buffer. The same local layer can then coordinate additional assets.
Lower cost
Predictive starts, less wasted runtime and price response without constant tuning.
Better comfort
Occupancy, preferences and the behaviour of every zone considered continuously.
Lower peaks
Staggered equipment operation and deliberate use of thermal inertia.
VPP readiness
Measurable, dispatchable flexibility and a new value stream for the owner.
From data to autonomy.
The open Energy Agent supports analysis and system mapping. The commercial ORLA layer adds autonomous control, validation, safety and operational accountability.
Diagnose
Map systems, data and sources of waste.
Learn
Build a local response model for the site.
Shadow mode
Evaluate decisions without taking control.
Autonomy and VPP
Controlled launch, M&V, then flexibility.
One mechanism. Multiple routes to scale.
ORLA creates owner value while giving partners a repeatable product for the next building.
Owners and portfolios
Lower cost, better comfort, comparable data and access to flexibility markets.
Installers and manufacturers
An AI layer alongside HVAC, heat pumps, BMS, PV or storage — including white-label models.
Aggregators and VPPs
New buildings as locally validated flexibility assets without rebuilding the execution layer.
Security without ambiguity.
Does the VPP get remote access to devices?
It does not have to. The VPP sends an energy need or price signal; ORLA determines the feasible response and execution locally.
What happens when internet access is lost?
The primary control loop runs locally. Existing automation or a safe fallback policy takes over if required.
Is a full BMS required?
No. ORLA can use BMS, Home Assistant, thermostats, meters, simple controllers and wireless sensors.
Does the user retain comfort control?
Yes. Temperature bands, participation hours, priorities and excluded zones are hard agent constraints.
Does ORLA require a digital twin?
No expensive whole-building model is needed. ORLA learns the site’s response from local history and observation.
Connect your building to the new energy system.
Start with data and a safe pilot. We will identify energy waste and determine what flexibility the building can offer without compromising comfort.
HomeMind currently runs pilots and validates outcomes using M&V. Actual savings and flexibility depend on systems, usage, available data and site constraints.