The utility industry determines the state of our social and economic well-being. Ever since the start of the 21st century, there has been numerous advocacies and policies in favor of decarbonization and digitalization of the said industry in order to achieve higher reliability, efficiency, and sustainability. The convergence of smart card technology and Internet of Things (IOT) greatly improved the delivery and consumption of utilities such as electricity, gas, and water.
One of the major innovations in the utility industry is the emergence of digital energy metering technology. The consumption interpretations from analogue meters can result to erroneous readings hence, statistical errors in billing. In order to avoid these problems, utility companies are switching the installation from analogue to digital meters because the latter provide the most accurate consumption reading for correct billing.
Digital meters have been evolving through the integration of smart card and IOT technologies with the intention to improve utility resource distribution, gather pertinent data for better analytics, and increase customer satisfaction.
A digital energy meter is an essential device that measures energy or resource consumption. A smart card reader module with contact, contactless/NFC, or dual interface can be integrated into the meter for payment. Utility consumers use a smart card to store prepaid credits as real time and on-the-spot payment to the consumption of electricity or water by the tapping or inserting the smart card to the built-in smart card reader integrated inside the meter. Using the prepaid payment mechanism, this allows consumers to budget their consumption and recharge their credits through flexible means such as online active devices, standalone kiosks, or counters designated by the utility provider.
On the other hand, an IOT-enabled digital meter has an advanced communication module via either Bluetooth® or GSM (e.g. 4G/5G) wherein it allows the monitoring of meter status, consumption reading, and basic data report to be accessed by a consumer’s mobile phone or PC. Furthermore, a utility provider will be able to access the information through their network of computers to create more advanced data report for analytics purposes. These data analytics will serve as a guide to utility providers to provide better allotment of resources or energy and overall continuous improvement of services offered to consumers.
AB Circle offers secure, flexible, and cost-effective smart cards as prepaid cards and smart card readers in module or OEM format for fast and easy integration to digital energy meters and standalone reloading machines. Desktop and mobile smart card readers are also available for reloading terminal options.
Powerful and proven encryption algorithms (e.g. AES, 3KDES, etc) of smart card technology ensures secured storage of data and messaging capabilities in the bills payment and credit reloading regardless of the smart card interface used. Transactions are made instantly with high security.
Prepaid smart card technology fosters the benefit of reloading credits via an app, standalone reloading terminals, or designated counters provided by the utility provider which provides options and convenience to consumers. The accessibility of an app or software is a great tool for a consumer to check real time statistics such as monthly consumption, billing summaries, charge amendments, important announcements from the utility provider, etc.
Digitalization has several benefits to the utility provider such as improved relationship with consumers through updated products and services, increased network reliability and operational efficiency, strengthened physical and data security and prevention of unpaid utility consumption and potential excess usage of a particular energy or resource. With the availability of data analytics and consumer feedbacks, a utility provider will be able to make informed decisions on future investments to grow its business in a sustained manner with less down-time but more predictability while at the same time achieve decarbonization as much as possible.
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