Kamstrup ultrasonic AMR meters are proven to deliver pinpoint accuracy with smart alarms for any leak, burst, and reverse flow or tamper. It has a battery life up to 16 years with minimal maintenance.Suneel Bhambere, Director, Kamstrup Metering Solutions Pvt Ltd

Kamstrup is a global major in the field of intelligent energy and water metering solutions. In an interview with B2B Purchase, Suneel Bhambere, Director, Kamstrup Metering Solutions Pvt Ltd speaks about the need for ‘smart’ water metering solutions in today’s context. He also touched upon the key topic like emerging role of cellular technology and IoT in the efficient functioning of distribution network. Excerpts:

Kamstrup and Optiqua Technologies announced a partnership to bring Optiqua’s intelligent water quality monitoring solutions. Can you give us a detailed account regarding the same?

Making water quality data available in real-time in combination with intelligent water metering holds the potential for improving relations with customers, optimising operations, quality management, asset management and much more. Hence, Kamstrup and Optiqua Technologies collaborated this year to bring Optiqua’s intelligent water quality monitoring solutions, in particular EventLab, to the Scandinavian, German and Polish markets. EventLab strongly outperforms any traditional sensor technology for the purpose of overall water quality monitoring and contamination detection. It has a wide range of applications including the monitoring of water quality at treatment plants, monitoring of water quality in distribution networks and monitoring the water quality at intake points/surface water monitoring.

In short, the digital water municipality provides total transparency in the distribution network and thus concrete benefits. To achieve this transparency, Kamstrup is actively cooperating with partners to integrate the required components beyond its own core portfolio.

What are the salient features of Kamstrup that separate it from the other competitors?

At Kamstrup, we define success by the progress we create for others. We use our superior technology, deep customer understanding and industry vision to deliver more intelligent, reliable and cost effective ways to measure and manage the consumption of energy and water. We work with energy companies, water supply departments, municipalities and submetering businesses to protect their reputations, create new opportunities for growth and inspire smarter, more responsible solutions for the communities they serve.

We are inspired by better; we never settle for second best and lead by example, always searching for new ways to advance our learning and turn opportunity into benefit. Through our leadership, expertise and passion for partnership, we always think forward in pursuit of a brighter energy and water future. Unlike many of our competitors, our exclusive focus is on providing our clients with the best of ultrasonic smart metering technology and solutions.

We are a one stop shop when it comes to smart metering, offering a range of hardware, software and services, including; consumption meters, communication infrastructure, meter data management systems, smart grid applications, hosted solutions and tools for data analysis. To maintain quality throughout our delivery process, we have a state-of-the-art fully automatic production unit at our Headquarter in Denmark.

Can you tell us about some of your offerings?

Kamstrup is a world-leading supplier of intelligent energy and water metering solutions. Our water metering solutions are based on proven technology and represent the next generation of smart metering.

By combining the newest ultrasonic technology with remote reading, advanced pressure and leakage surveillance and high end-user involvement, we offer a full product portfolio that covers the municipality’s core tasks while securing the highest level of control, efficiency and flexibility in the market.

Kamstrup delivers solutions in all shapes and sizes – from individual meters and remote reading systems to fully automated service solutions. We offer a broad range of automated meter reading systems which covers everything from handheld units to long distance network, wired or wireless, combined with user-friendly data management programs.

Kamstrup energy meters are produced to MID Approval EN1434 (OIML R49/IS4064) – a stringent European standard that ensures that the accuracy and quality remain constant so you can be confident that every meter is as good as the last. The ULTRAFLOW flow sensors use microprocessor technology and ultrasonic measuring techniques. The electronic safety lock in all Kamstrup meters ensures that the municipal authority can only read the meters associated with its customer database and protects the meter’s data against unwanted access. This ensures that only the authority can read the meters.

There is an increasing focus on cellular technology and managed solutions. How will they be significant with water municipalities in 2017?

Any municipality who wish to use cellular technologies needs to consider how it will influence their smart metering business case. Among other things, they need to consider the total lifetime of their meters, the technological maturity of the cellular technology in question, the level of service they require as well as the cellular coverage.

Some of the new IoT technologies look promising, but so far, only a few can offer good coverage. Most of these technologies are still rather immature and they have yet to prove their usefulness within smart metering. The two main concerns are the effects on battery consumption and the service level that the IoT technologies can offer. It is true that the power consumption of the new technologies has been reduced, but there is still a long way to go before it reaches a level that is acceptable for a modern digital municipality where frequent data is of the essence. To create a successful business case for smart metering, an increasing number of municipalities want data from their meters and sensors on an hourly basis without compromising the overall battery lifetime of up to 16 years. In today’s scenario, a municipality which is looking into meters with the new cellular technologies must compromise on either the lifetime of the meter or the level of service (data update intervals).

In short, we believe that the cellular technologies will have a limited significance for most water supply departments in 2017. However, the significance might increase in the years to come if the technologies become more mature and issues like battery consumption are addressed.

Software as a Service (Saas) has been in the news for a considerable time. How do you look at these emerging software in collaboration to your offerings?

We agree that data hosting, server maintenance, system updates and back-ups etc. do not necessarily need to be part of a municipality’s key competences. If the necessary data is made available in a cloud-based environment, the municipality can focus on what they do best: ensuring that their customers have access to safe and clean water and that they are fairly billed based on their consumption. Therefore, SaaS is already an integral part of Kamstrup’s offerings. We can make life easier for the water supply department by safely hosting data in our cloud. Our customers who use this option have yearly subscriptions to software for meter data management, data analytics and end-user (consumer) tools. Along with the smart ultrasonic meter, we provide our customers with a simple and flexible mobile reading software called READy. With READy mobile reading, you can automatically read your meters on the go. Using Google Maps, the meters are automatically located on a map on your smartphone or tablet. When you drive, your smartphone automatically displays the nearby meters, which meters are being read, and which meters that remains to be read. You do not have to follow a fixed route and the data is transferred so quickly that you can drive with normal speed and still collect all readings.

What is your future projection for metering solutions sector?

In a report released by Northeast Group, annual growth in the global water metering market is expected to increase from $3.7 bn in 2016 to $7.5 bn by 2026. The research firm notes that through modernisation efforts, including the deployment of smart water metering, communications and software can reduce the amount of water lost. In India, we have seen mechanical meters used in households for a very long time, which have many shortcomings like, inaccuracy, early wear and tear, air measurement, tampering, maintenance issues etc. There is a need for smart solutions and intelligent water networks to manage water consumption. A key challenge in water delivery is the high rate of non-revenue water (NRW) among utilities across the world. Approximately 28 per cent of water is lost to undetected leaks in water infrastructure, failure to accurately meter usage and in some cases theft.

Kamstrup ultrasonic AMR meters are proven to deliver pinpoint accuracy with smart alarms for any leak, burst, reverse flow or tamper and with a battery life up to 16 years with minimal maintenance. The reading solutions help users to track consumption effectively and gather insights into data that can be used by municipalities for effective water management for both source and supply. With the advent of smart cities mission and AMRUT cities, we are positive that these smart metering solutions have a long way to go in order to build sustainable and liveable places of future.