SMART UTILITY MANAGEMENT FULL

This leads to improved customer satisfaction which drives down service costs and helps WUM keep water rates manageable for their rate payers.Īs one older WUM team member ironically commented during the pilot phase of the project, “I’m not sure what I think of this new smart meter data. By providing customers with transparency into their water usage, they can better understand their bill and identify and repair costly leaks. On top of the obvious advantages that WUM receives from the new valve control and AMI system, the benefits to end-use customer are also a big part of the business case for making the investment. This was a surprising result, and Ray and Chris set out to identify a way to reduce their service order volume. These work orders were due to customers moving in and out, payment delinquencies, and reported system leaks. In late 2017, Ray Harrington, Director of Operations, and Chris Booker, Information Systems Manager, completed an evaluation which revealed that 80% of service orders were related to service connections or shut offs.

As a part of a regular performance evaluation, the team at WUM looked at Key Performance Indicators across their operations to identify areas that might benefit from improved processes or investments in new technology. The second area targeted for improvement was in service order efficiency. Clearly an investment in Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) would support these goals. The first was to automate meter reading to help reduce operation costs, reach non-revenue water reduction goals, and increase customer satisfaction through real-time consumption data. When combined with the considerable benefits of remote management and a more compact design, the eSIM is well positioned to effectively address the challenges posed by smart metering deployments which require mobile connectivity.įor device makers and utility companies who do not initially require mobile connectivity, an embedded secure element (eSE) is an alternative option to effectively address key security challenges.As WUM contemplated future growth, two areas of opportunity stood out. It is based on the proven, established and secure UICC platform, and is certified and specified by the GSMA to deliver secure mobile connectivity. The eSIM is already widely deployed across various M2M and IoT use cases and its role in enhancing security and reducing complexity is widely recognised. This could cause major disruption to utility supplies and / or the underlying connectivity network. Unauthorised network access – poorly protected smart meters could allow attackers to access the wider network.

With the increasing connectivity of utility networks presenting an expanded threat-landscape, smart meters are high-value targets for cyber-attackers and must be protected. Threat to critical infrastructure – disruption of critical infrastructure can have a significant political, economic and social impact. Protecting the data stored on the device and over the network must be a priority. Privacy –consumption data stored on or transmitted by smart meters could make it possible for unauthorised entities to identify or anticipate the behaviours of individual households or organisations. Those involved in advancing smart meter deployment must consider multiple logistical and security requirements: Other examples include demand response, utility data management and distributed utility resource management. Smart metering is just one of many use cases within the utilities sector which can benefit from the eSIM. Smart metering will also make it possible to harness the huge power of the sharing economy to manage and meet increasing demand for utilities, through the real-time diversion of resources to where they are needed most. The global expansion of smart meter deployments has been driven in part by governmental regulation, due to a requirement for real-time consumption data to better manage supplies.Īccording to the GSMA, in the future, smart metering deployment will be a key enabler of smart cities and industry 4.0, delivering the data required to ensure services are efficient and sustainable.

SMART UTILITY MANAGEMENT FULL

The term ‘smart meter’ covers a variety of residential, commercial and industrial solutions monitoring a full range of utilities, including electricity, water and gas.

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