A tailored smart metering solution for cooling, water and electricity

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

A tailored smart metering solution for cooling, water and electricity in Riyadh

Smart meters gain market shares from mechanical meters

Sub-metering customers are typical customers of MTTS. These customers are billed in volume by public utilities and are interested in billing their sub-units. That includes shopping malls, housing compounds, business parks etc. Al Bustan, a housing compound composed of 850 residential units, 370 apartment “Sub-metering and domestic metering are widespread, but all these meters are mechanical and can't be read remotely.

The owners would like to bill the tenants remotely and reliably from their offices, without a reader to go to every unit.”

Why Kamstrup’s smart meter solution was chosen
The competition to win the Al Bustan smart metering project was tough. First of all, Kamstrup’s solution was up against other manufacturers and system integrators.

Secondly, the estate owner would not accept any additional network. Only the existing IP infrastructure was acceptable.

“The obvious synergy benefit of combined reading of water, cooling and electricity meters was one decisive factor in the choice of Kamstrup’s meters based on IP communication and the PcBase III Suite data management system” Abdul Rahman Dabban, responsible for meter sales at MTTS

MTTS, a system integrator and strategic smart metering partner of Kamstrup, seated in Jeddah and Riyadh, has won the prestigious Al Bustan smart metering project in Riyadh: 2,378 Kamstrup water, cooling and electricity meters with IP data collection and a data management system.

MTTS promotes, sells and delivers complete smart metering solutions with integrated cooling, water and electricity meters. The primary purpose of these projects is billing. Estate owners would like to bill tenants accurately, remotely and reliably, and smart metering provides the necessary data storage and interface between meters and billing solution.

From the point of view of Abdul Rahman Dabban the Kamstrup solution was chosen due to the following advantages:

Combi-solution
The obvious synergy benefit of combined reading of water, cooling and electricity meters was one decisive factor in the choice of Kamstrup’s meters based on IP communication and the PcBase III Suite data management system.

Flexible meter reading technology
The owner of Al Bustan refused to install a new network for metering. A part of the project had already been implemented. There was already fibre to home connections in all the villas. The owner was seeking a solution based on existing IP infrastructures. MTTS and Kamstrup therefore worked together to develop and deliver a complete IP based smart metering system where each meter was connected to the IP switch in each home and then through the site fibre network to the control centre.

User friendly data management system
The owner required a software programme that simplified operation and reading. With the data management system from Kamstrup, MTTS could provide the customer with the right software with a simple user interface to collect

and manage all customer information and meter data needed for statistical analysis programmes and data export to billing systems.

Accurate and long time stable meters
The owner required stable and accurate meters with integrated communication; and MULTICAL® 602 for cooling metering, MULTICAL® 62 for water metering and Kamstrup 382 for electricity metering met the technical requirements and proved to bring significantly economic and operational benefits.

Tailored solution
The delivery time was tight, but thanks to the strong cooperation the two teams from MTTS and Kamstrup managed to tailor solutions and submit competitive proposals within the required deadline.

Saudi Arabia is going big into the construction branch and water industries - and there will be myriad ways to capitalize on making the kingdom more sustainable. As it stands, Saudi Arabia still burns its excess oil, much of it going to power electricity.

However, the oil future isn’t sustainable. Water being a scarce resource, Saudi Arabia is investing big in desalination plants and heavily subsidizing tap water.

In 2010 Saudi implemented an ambitious investment plan within energy and construction that together with a favorable economy will facilitate the demand for energy and water regulation and metering.

In fact these economic and environmental pressures to promote sustainable development in the construction and energy sector are part of the reason why the owner of Al Bustan chose a complete smart metering solution with integrated water, cooling and electricity meters from Kamstrup. “The delivery time was tight, but thanks to the strong cooperation the two teams from MTTS and Kamstrup managed to tailor solutions and submit competitive proposals within the required deadline.” Abdul Rahman Dabban, responsible for meter sales at MTTS

Economic and environmental incentives

Saudi Arabia has the world’s largest oil reserves. Oil accounts for more than 95 % of exports and 70 % of government revenue, and Saudi Arabia’s economic development has been driven for decades by the phenomenal success of its oil industry. The worldwide recession has not downturned the kingdom’s economy. Abdul Rahman Dabban explains:

“I don’t think the Saudi market was affected by the financial crisis. The country is still selling oil at a reasonably high price - so no shortage of cash. In addition, the government has approved major spending initiatives to ensure the locals are not affected by the difficulties elsewhere”.

New plans for the future at MTTS

MTTS is working to win the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD), a prestigious smart metering project combining the remote reading and billing of Kamstrup electricity, water and cooling meters, however it is not on hand, yet. Many of the major projects such as KAFD are owned by government pension funds, but they are developed and will be operated as private organizations. “Apart from the privately owned projects, the government is currently implementing some pilot projects in different parts of the country, and this is a key target on our next year’s plan,” Abdul Rahman Dabban says.

Individual metering of commercial and domestic subscribers is not compulsory. Typically only government utilities are entitled to bill commercial and domestic subscribers. However, with the increase of mega projects where the utilities bill the owners and not the tenants directly, the owners gradually abandon the flat rate billing method in favour of individual billing of the tenants according to consumption.

“Many owners are starting to appreciate the benefits of smart metering technologies because smart metering is convenient to the owner; it secures correct and reliable billing and last but not least facilitates increased metering revenues”

Abdul Rahman Dabban, responsible for meter sales at MTTS

The best solution from an economical point of view is to replace many more mechanical meters by smart meters.

Not only will individual billing reduce the operational costs for the utility and estate owner, but it will encourage improved consumption habits among consumers to the benefit of the environment.