Conlog smart meter purpose

Oct 16, 2023

Metering company Conlog last week announced launch of a new smart meter purpose-built for Africa during Enlit Africa in South Africa.

CEO Logan Moodley revealed their latest innovation in prepaid and smart meters, noting they relied on "solutions that have been tried and testedon the African continent" as he launched their single phase smart meter, iDM APEX 1 and a three phase variant, the iDM APEX 3.

He also introduced another first for the company – a digital assistant aimed directly at customers. Looking to the future, Conlog asked what happens next when the traditional customer user interface becomes a thing of the past. CoDi, a digital platform for customers to buy prepaid tokens for water, electricity and gas and interact with the company's experts for support via WhatsApp, is a downloadable app.

"We have to consider the future and the future speaks to how do we create exceptional convenience for our customers," said Moodley.

The smart meter company started working on the new smart meter product four years ago, drawing on African specifications through a collaboration with partners such as the Association of Power Utilities of Africa (APUA) and the African Electrotechnical Standardisation Commission (AFSEC) "that supported design and specification challenges and meeting requirements."

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The new meters offer the next level in interoperability, are highly scalable and come with integrated cellular WAN connectivity to NB-IoT/5G/4G/3G/2G which make them adaptable to a range of countries with varying technical specifications on the grids.

Smart functionality include both prepaid and post paid modes, with meters able to be currency or unit based. Since the meters are able to handle time of use or step tariffs, they would be useful in wheeling situations.

The ability to handle demand management principles such as intelligent load limiting, intelligent loadshedding and emergency or scheduled demand response open up a range of options.

The meters also provide next level revenue protection measures with advanced tamper detection capabilities.

Speaking at the launch Abel Tella, APUA secretary general said the association was pleased by the launch of this particular meter "because of APUA's support of local production in Africa."

"We are very proud of your achievement," he told Moodley as he presented the company with a plaque commemorating their accomplishments.

Originally published on ESI-Africa.