Community Checkins

Agendas, Meeting notes and recordings for all our meetings

Previous Meetings Recorded
NFE Checkin - 16/05/2025
NFE Checkin - 23/05/2025
NFE Checkin - 30/05/2025
NFE Checkin - 06/06/2025
NFE Checkin - 20/06/2025
NFE Checkin - June 24th 2025
NFE <> EnAccess Checkin
NFE Checkin - July 4th 2025
NFE Checkin - July 9th 2025
NFE Checkin 11/7/2025
NFE Checkin 18/7/2025
NFE checkin 26/07/2025

Previous Meetings Recorded

NFE Checkin - 16/05/2025

Agenda

Metering Evaluation review
Pearl Marina Proposal Review
Company tools Demos
- Element (Matrix)
- Kimai (Time tracking)
- NextCloud (Calendar and Email)
- Bookstack (Team Documentation)

Action items

Prepare Fundraising update for next meeting - Aaron
Ordering meters from Top 3 providers - Aaron
Need to locate manual for China Brandless meter - Dansturn
Nansana Site inspection Open questions for next meeting - Dansturn
- Find out process for requesting/applying for bulk/sub meter from Umeme

NFE Checkin - 23/05/2025

Payment System Evaluation
Design of Sezibwa Rentals Microgrid
- Need to a separate switch to turn Umeme on/off
- May need bypass on the inverter too for maintainance
- How much last gasp mechanism does the Lora Gateway come with
- How about meters? What happens before and after power goes off
- Materials
  - Meters + Lora Gateway
  - Wiring
  - Cabinet
  - Umeme switch on/off - circuit breaker
  - Civil works - cement
No demos of company tools, keeping it short because Hillary has a hard stop (1.5 hours)

Action items

Set up payment page - Aaron
Follow up on shopping for materials - Dansturn
Update micro design from notes above - Aaron
Inventory management - How do we keep track of hardware we have - Aaron to propose something

NFE Checkin - 30/05/2025

Agenda

~~Payment Processor demo~~
AMI demo
- CalinAMI
- MicroPowerManager
Other collaboration tools
- dashboard
- calcom
- Kimia
~~BOQ for locally sourced items~~
~~Physical layout for Sezibwa Rentals Microgrid~~

Action items

Pesapal - How to process refunds - Aaron
Check on when money is received on the bank account - Aaron
What is the process of becoming a 3 phase (bulk metering) customer - Dansturn
- Include how payments are made
- What does UMEME reclaim/own?
  - Meters?
  - Circuit breakers?
  - Wiring?
BOQ feedback - Dansturn
- Confirm that meter is for Code 10.2 not Code 20
- Resize PDU (we need one for 10 meters)
- Compare both suppliers instead combining and present both

NFE Checkin - 06/06/2025

Agenda

AMI demo
- CalinAMI
- MicroPowerManager
Other collaboration tools
- dashboard
- calcom
- Kimai
Company Board and Structure updates
Fundraising Updates

Action items

- Ownership model - Aaron to present this next week
Upload documents to Element/Bookstack - Dansturn
- Layout of Sezibwa rentals
- BOQ excel

6/13/2025

Updates and Action items

- Dansturn

Purchase the PDU in which to put the meters in the course of next week
complete the BOQ Excel with new revisions
Receive the meters that arrived from China
Application for 3 phase commercial from uedcl
Aaron
- fundraising update to be discussed next week.
- Collaboration tools to be discussed next week.

Expectations for next week
- MicroPowerManager

NFE Checkin - 20/06/2025

Agenda

Operation Updates

How to apply for Three Phase connection
BOQ updates for Sezibwa Rentals

Fundraising updates

We are tracking our finances on open collective.
Phase 1: Sezibwa Rentals - funding status
Fundraising efforts - Tracker

Other collaboration tools

dashboard
calcom

MicroPower Manager -

Toggling Calinmeter on/off in progress
Adding Calinmeters via LoraWAN gateway - In analysis

Action Items

Documentation that shows the relationship between the client (Sezibwa Rentals) and NFE. - Aaron can provide MOU
Examples of Postpaid Bills - Hillary + Dansturn
- Code 10.2 to Code 50
Load Schedule for Sezibwa Rentals - Aaron + Hillary
Confirm that the 10.2 meter come with in built phase selector or if we need a phase selector - Dansturn
Meeting early next week

NFE Checkin - June 24th 2025

Action items

Power bank for Gateway - Aaron
Padlocks for gateway - Aaron
Set up Calinmeters and Gateway - Dansturn
Conference list needs compiling - Aaron

NFE <> EnAccess Checkin

Attendees

Aaron Tushabe - NFE
Vivien - EnAccess
Daniel - EnAccess

Meeting link: https://meet.google.com/rpg-vpmw-zzh

Agenda

Introductions
Expectations for NFE using EnAccess provided MPM instance for Sezibwa Rentals Pilot
- Daniel: For transparency: We haven't yet had the time to fully clarify and conceptionalise our ToS for MPM, w.r.t SLA/SLO/Uptime promises/Data security, but also pricing to cover the infrastructure costs etc... As a result we currently provide the MPM cloud service this "as-is".
- Aaron: This is understood and when we are successful with the pilot, we'd like to collaborate on the posibility of agreeing on some Terms of Service or setting up NFE's self hosted instance. I think the community needs an instance to quickly evaluate MPM cheaply and quickly so I'd prefer we collaborate on improving the cloud.mpm.io experience more production ready for new joiners.
Support with Regular Community Calls on MPM/EnAccess projects/materials
- Let's talk about how I can help, I have ideas but I some questions first
  - Who do you recommend I pair with on this one. I am of the view that initiatives are more resilient if we have more than one human co-owning it so I'd like to have someone I pair with to get this going. I can reach out to Thulie add see if she's up for it
  - Anything that has been tried in the past that I should consider before proposing something?
NFE overview
- I have a pitch deck I keep refining and our bylaws share more about our ownership model

Notes

Quick summary

During this meeting, Aaron, Vivien, and Daniel discussed the Nearly Free Energy mini-grid project, the history and current status of the Microgrid Power Manager (MPM) software, challenges related to community adoption and technical implementation, and potential collaboration on pilot deployment and funding sustainability.

Action items for Aaron

Test and finalize the connection of the newly arrived smart meters with the existing LoRa gateway and the MPM system by the end of the week.
Reach out to Truly (community manager at EnAccess) to plan the first collaborative call focusing on MPM pilot.
Share detailed documentation of Nearly Free Energy’s funding model and business plans with Vivien and Daniel.
Investigate and propose any feature improvements or integration needed for MPM to support Nearly Free Energy’s pilot.
Continue applying for grants to sustain Nearly Free Energy operations and explore co-application opportunities with EnAccess.

Action items for Vivien

Provide continued onboarding and support for Aaron on the MPM platform and relevant documentation.
Facilitate coordination between Aaron and Truly for community engagement and calls.
Share more detailed information about EnAccess’s current funding, support structure, and pricing policy as it develops.
Invite relevant stakeholders from REA Nigeria and Cameroon to join the community discussions and pilot support.
Assist in documenting prospective features and integrations for MPM in the public GitHub repository.

Action items for Daniel

Support Aaron with technical guidance on MPM setup, infrastructure reliability, and data backup processes.
Monitor and assist with troubleshooting any compatibility issues between smart meters and MPM, especially regarding Colleen meters.
Ensure automated database backups are working effectively on the cloud infrastructure used for the pilot.
Help Aaron with understanding MPM functionalities, feature limitations, and contribute to the software documentation.
Participate in community management activities and support onboarding efforts for new users like Aaron.

NFE Checkin - July 4th 2025

Agenda

Sezibwa rentals BOQ review
- Open Questions
- How we are funding it
  - NFE will fund it
  - Kimbowas will contribute 1k to NFE
  - Arinda will contribute 1k to NFE
  - Open Collective NFE account
Calinmeter AMI Testing results review
- Outstanding issues
Code 10 application
- Code 10 bills
Github issues on Micropower Manager
Meeting with Vivien

Action items

Submit Contributions by tomorrow: Dansturn + Arinda
Find remaining balance for Sezibwa rentals: Aaron
Submit expenses for Sezibwa Rentals to Open Collective: Dansturn + Aaron
Follow up with Scott on
- Last month meter reading feature: Arinda
- Needed to retry commands a couple of times, why?: Arinda
Build PDU and deploy next week: Dansturn
Code 10 Application: Aaron

NFE Checkin - July 9th 2025

Agenda

NFE Checkin 11/7/2025

Agenda

Review of Last week's Action items
Review of progress on PDU setup
Discuss next steps concerning the power application.

Review of Last week's Action items

Submit Contributions by tomorrow: Dansturn + Arinda == Done
Find remaining balance for Sezibwa rentals: Aaron === Aaron to update
Submit expenses for Sezibwa Rentals to Open Collective: Dansturn + Aaron == Pending, Dansturn will submit receipts by Monday
Follow up with Scott on
- Last month meter reading feature: Arinda == Scott hasnt been responsive. Follow up more
- Needed to retry commands a couple of times, why?: Arinda == Has dependency on Scott, pending
Build PDU and deploy next week: Dansturn == work in progress. to be done by Monday
Code 10 Application: Aaron ==. Aaron to update when he wakes up

Action items for this week

Complete meter assembly in the PDU by Monday 14th July == Dansturn
Add stands and secure lock on the PDU and deliver to site by Monday 14th July == Dansturn
Pull ABC (1 span) to the proposed service point. By Next meeting == Dansturn
Push connection application in tandem with the pending PDU works == Dansturn
Follow up Scott again === Hillary

NFE Checkin 18/7/2025

Agenda

Sezibwa Homes Phase 1 - Deployment Blockers
- New CODE 10 application - I tried applying here but I need a Cert Number
- PDU Deployment Pictures
Communication with Scott: Still unresponsive?
Funding Updates
- Sezibwa Homes Phase 2 - 5k grant pledged by Energy IoT open source
- Expense submissions

Action items

Submit all outstanding expenses for Phase 1 - Dansturn
Provide Cert Number for Code 10 application (6890377606518) - Dansturn
Share deployment photography on Bookstack
Customer contact information collected - Aaron
Complete service cable installations - Dansturn
Share Recoverable grant funding agreement with Team on - Aaron
Checkin with Scott - Hillary

NFE checkin 26/07/2025

Agenda

Previous action items

~~Provide Cert Number for Code 10 application (6890377606518) - Dansturn~~
~~Share deployment photography on Bookstack~~
Customer contact information collected - Aaron
Complete service cable installations - Dansturn
~~Share Recoverable grant funding agreement with Team on - Aaron~~
~~Checkin with Scott - Hillary~~

New items to discuss

Demo
- Self serve portal for UEDCL
- Application approved notice
- Recoverable grant agreement Template
- Pictorial Phase 1
- Dansturn meeting with Vivien follow ups
Issues for Sezibwa Homes
- Umeme Meter box installed outside fence - is this an issue
- Calin AMI bugs - can we launch with them
Next steps
- Capture customer names and contacts - assign meters
- Umeme billing portal - How will be get our monthly bill and how are we expected to pay

Action items

Submit all outstanding expenses for Phase 1 - Dansturn
Customer contact information collected - Aaron
Complete service cable installations - Dansturn
Schedule follow-up call with Vivien - Aaron
Autarky (Titiana) Follow-up call - Aaron
How to collect data from Chint three phase meter - Aaron/Dansturn