A local leading water technology firm is rolling out a Smart Meter Project targeting all water service providers across the country to enhance good customer service provision.
Earth View Management Limited will roll out Smart Meters across the country which is part of an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) that facilitates two-way communication between the water service provider and the customer.
Speaking during the launch of the project in Mombasa on Wednesday, Earth View Managing Director, Charles Kaloki, said that the introduction of Smart Meters will highly enhance service delivery to water customers and improve general services in the water sector.
Kaloki said Smart Metering targets to give customers water bills on daily usage.
“Smart Metering targets to implement transparency on billing and less water loss, it also ensures that everybody is able to pay for the amount of water they use,” he said.
He added that the Smart Meters will also enhance revenue collection by 200 per cent in a very short time, reduce the technical losses and be able to account for the water extracted.
The government will also be able to know how much water is extracted across the country through a dashboard system being implemented and to be launched soon.
The project is funded by Kenya Innovative Finance Facility for Water (KIFFWA) and will be installed by Earth View which is the Digital Water and Energy solution provider.
According to Kaloki, the project began in January, phase one is already done and the second phase which has kicked off this month will ensure rolling out of the smart meters across the country.
“The first phase has been about building capacity, building a system within water system authority and the second phase is about rolling out the smart meters,” he added.
Other benefits outlined for the Smart Meter solution is a reduction of non-revenue water by 50 percent and will ensure that the government has an idea of how much water is extracted from every receiver and how much is billed.
A Smart Meter Reading Technology allows a continuous electronic reading, storage, display and transfer of water.
It also provides the ability to collect and relay water use data to the water user provider almost in real time.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) KIFFWA, Joseph Murabula, said being the financer of the project, they are happy as the Smart Metering infrastructure will be able to capture data on abstraction on all water abstractors and also in the entire country.
Secretary General of Smart Meters Association of Africa, James Ngomeli, said the association is bringing all players in the metering value chain in the Africa region so that they can have a standardized way of metering.
He said the metering infrastructure will bring more satisfaction to customers, reduce cost and increase revenue.
“Across the last one year, the implementation of the metering in electricity and water has been a challenge. And it’s not only in Kenya but it’s happening across the region. Our association will ensure that we have similar platforms where a meter working in Nairobi can work in Embu or Nakuru,” said Ngomeli.
By Chari Suche
