Paying water bills without publicizing bills, unexplained water loss, skyrocketing water prices with no answers… The water management technology system with intelligent and preeminent meter would help people improve this hard "problem".
Many solutions needed for a revolution in water loss prevention
The phenomenon of unusual increase in domestic water prices was no longer "strange" for households. Many people have had to live with this "money loss – disability brought" situation for many years without receiving any satisfactory answer from the local government or clean water supply units.
Big urban cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City were the two areas with the highest population density, and with high residential areas, apartment buildings and old dormitories. This inadvertently became a barrier of clean water supply facilities for the direct management of the water supply system.
It was urgently neccessary finding a solution to reduce urban water loss
In many cases, apartments and quarter of collective housing units applied the method of supplying water through a system of general pumps and collecting water bills through an intermediary. Therefore, people did not receive a bill at the end of the month, the monitoring of the index became more passive and they even had to pay additional fees for water pumping, sanitation, etc., which was ambiguous. The amount of money to spend every month was very different, even people had to pay a double amount compared to the regulated water price. Even though worries were here and the situation was there, people still had to accept paying for clean water management agencies because there was no available solution water supplied directly to each household.
In addition, the tight management budget, degraded infrastructure and reduced revenue were causing many difficulties for the management of water utilities in many cities. Therefore, it was necessary to have optimal solutions to improve the situation of urban water loss and be capable of comprehensively serving individual households in particular and state management facilities in general.
The solution for urban water loss problem
Currently, many water supply and distribution companies were considering deploying automatic meter reading (AMR) systems to reduce management costs and save time and effort of employees. In fact, AMR technology has been applied globally, showing its effectiveness and urgency in advanced system management, optimization and enhancement of customer experience.
Moreover, this system was not only an effective support tool for businesses but also a suitable product for individuals and households. AMR could be easily installed at home and connected to smartphones, making it easy for householders to monitor monthly updated water index and abnormal changes to find the cause and fix it at soonest.
The LC- MMM (Multi Meter Machine) smart meter, invented by LC Vietnam Technology Co. Ltd., was an AMR-based solution that has succeeded in effective water management. Won the first prize of Sao Khue Award 2019 and being three years of presence in the market, MMM has gradually affirmed its indispensable role, contributing to reduce the financial burden for many water supply enterprises in general and households in particular.
Applying smart technology to effectively save clean water resources
The smart meter LC- MMM was researched, patented (in 2018) and tested at VBS Measure Technology Joint Stock Company (Bac Tu Liem, Hanoi). The test results had shown the product's high feasibility in the application of monitoring, reporting of water index and detecting abnormal conditions with absolutely accurate results, contributing to reduce water loss, electricity and gas from 50% to 25%.
The technology director of LC Tech said that, for this invention, the company aimed to find "the most suitable plan for the actual situation in Vietnam, and not to create the most advanced technology". Accordingly, LC-MMM was highly applicable, easy to use, suitable for small households, business establishments, apartments, office buildings and clean water supply units nationwide. Besides, smart meters have been sold on the market with an average price of 50 USD (equivalent to 1.15 million VND), 3-5 times lower than imported products.
The rewarding point of LC - MMM not only lied in its good price, but also in its outstanding intelligent features, ready to compete with products in the same segment in the market. LC Tech had pioneered the application of artificial intelligence (AI) platform, specifically optical character recognition (OCR) technology. This was a software equipped with a small camera capable of capturing the indexes on the water meter and sending the information to the management system. MMM had the ability to connect to phones, tablets, laptops via the internet and the data on the meter would be updated hourly, sending notifications to the server. LC Tech had also established a backup feature, in the case of disconnecting internet connection, the indicator could still temporarily store information on the device and continue to update when the network was back on.
LC-MMM was capable of providing data to the management system on smartphones
Moreover, with the superior intelligence of artificial intelligence, MMM was also equipped with a sensor system to detect abnormal signs such as changing water index or illegal interference. Information would then be sent to the system so that householders and managers could find the cause and have timely solutions.
LC Tech has accompanied the reputable leading electronic equipment suppliers to ensure the best product quality. It could be mentioned about the product's battery pack with a long life, for the ability to operate up to 5 years. In addition, MMM has also been studied for its ability to maintain good operation under all hot and humid weather conditions with lots of rain easily leading to waterlogging in Vietnam.
This smart meter was extremely easy to install and use; and it was suitable for all different types of water meter. Besides, MMM was not only applied in managing the water index, but also has the ability to monitor electricity and gas indexes, contributing to comprehensive support and reducing the burden of living costs for people.
LC Tech has succeeded with the smart meter project
After being nearly 4 years on the market, the MMM smart meter from LC Tech has proven its role in improving the quality of environmental resources and meeting all the comprehensive requirements of individuals and organizations.
For private water suppliers and the government, it has saved time and reduced resources, increased observation speed and accuracy, overcome information delay, increased consistency, synchronization and convenience in management, operation and use.
For individuals and households, preventing water loss also avoid wasting of resources. At the same time, users could easily monitor consumption indicators and promptly detect irregularities in order to have timely remedial solutions to maintain stable monthly electricity and water costs and reduce the financial burden.
It can be affirmed that, with its outstanding technology platform and excellent performance, the MMM smart meter has gradually stood firm in the market, proving its indispensable role in people's lives and solving problems in national scale. With a long-term vision to develop smart watch products, LC Tech was continuing to seek for foreign investors with the ambition to reach out to the region, "exporting into Southeast Asia market."
