Location: Cluj-Napoca, North-West region, ROMANIA
Website: https://www.rf-meters.com/
RF METTERS is one of the winners of BOWI first Open Call for cross-border experiments, chosen amongst 79 applications from 6 regions to be supported during their technology transfer experiments. Like every selected experiment, RF METTERS will enter a 10-month BOWI Support Program which includes both technical and business-related support and get access to training sessions offered by the BOWI network partners.
Digital innovation hubs that will be supporting the company during the experiment are Transilvania IT Cluster and RWTH Aachen University.
About the experiment
Under the name “Smart Metering Module Development” RF METTERS’s experiment consists of building a solution to deliver the latest demands in smart metering infrastructures. This solution consists of a module attached to a smart meter who collects the data from the meter and transmits it through a wireless communication protocol developed by the company to a gateway. This solution can be applied to all areas of Smart Metering Systems (electricity, thermic energy, water, gas). The solution can be easily adapted to any type of digital meter giving the final customer a great flexibility and data precision.
Each module uses a unique IPv6 address expanding the internet in a secured way through a gateway to each module. One gateway can support up to 500 meters and transmits the data further to a data center through internet (3G or ethernet connection).
This experiment will help the company to develop a prototype of their solution and to demonstrate it in an operational environment.
Current stage of the solution
The solution has been successfully tested in the company's laboratory and in 3 types of relevant environments: urban, rural and mixed. The field tests were done in partnership with a Romanian national energy distributor, Electrica. Also, the company has an agreement with Electrica to install the test system after conclusion of the experiment.
Next step of the experiment
Company is aimed at further developing the module to create an operational prototype to be tested in the field, according to the company's 4 stage plan: hardware and software module development, protocol development and prototype validation before field installation, field installation and communication protocol development, final adjustments, conclusions, test report.
Market potential
Market potential is one of the most important aspects a company should take into consideration when they think about experiments like this. In this case, smart metering has a huge market traction, considering the fact that European Union imposed all member countries to replace all the electrical energy meters with smart meters by 2024. Moreover, Romania alone assumed a plan to replace 4.4m units (50% of total meters) until 2028 and the rest in the next 10 years.
Therefore, RF Meters’s solution is the most suitable for the latest communications demands for smart metering. While old solutions like PLC struggle to deliver these new demands, the company’s solution accomplishes all the latest demands and their unique selling point is that they can develop communication modules for almost any digital meter on the market from any energy industry: electrical, water, gas or thermic. This offers an unprecedented flexibility to energy distributors who can sell every type of energy without the problem of measuring it in the same smart system.
About the company
RF Meters was founded in 2019 and is an active member of Transilvania IT cluster, participating in different events organized by the cluster. Disregarding its young age RF Meters has already participated at a wide range of events like FOREN 2020, the largest energy event in Eastern Europe, organized by the Romanian National Energy Committee. Another was Disrupt 2020, one of the biggest worldwide events for tech startups and Startup Alley and Startup Avalanche, the biggest Transylvanian tech event, organized by Techsylvania.
The company also participated and reached the national final phase at two acceleration programs: InnoEnergy, supported by EIT, and InnovX, where RF Meters is currently in the post acceleration phase.
This article was initially published on BOWI's online community and afterwards migrated to DIHNet Community. Due to the platform's limitations, the publishing date differs from the original.