Plug&Play site management or, why your solar panel should be like your webcam.

Automation and monitoring systems for industrial and commercial sites (short: Site Management Systems) often grow organically, hence they need to be able to integrate large numbers of heterogeneous devices, based on both legacy and novel tools and systems. Currently, many standards are used in the site management field for both control (e.g., KNX, BACNet, LON) and communication (e.g., WiFi, Ethernet). Different systems are responsible for different tasks and parts of the site. Since they are usually not designed to interoperate, the site manager is forced to choose one that suits most of her needs, forgoing features offered by alternative solutions. I.e, the flexibility of the site manager is limited. Moreover, site management systems often require technical personnel for installation, calibration and configuration, and are not designed to be modified frequently to adapt to changes. Because of this, the site manager is discouraged from changing the settings of the system or from adding or updating devices, by lack of technical knowledge and by high costs. In other words, a site management system that makes adding new devices, e.g., solar panels, as easy as plugging in and using a webcam is needed.