The adoption of advanced metering applications, which measure heat and water use and aim to reduce energy and resource consumption, are becoming key drivers in significantly reducing our impact on the planet’s resources. More and more companies are harnessing the power of IoT and bringing smart meters of all sorts to market.

However, in order for these applications to be reliable and efficient the smart meters must have a lifetime expectancy of between 5 and 10 years. It is clear that choosing the right battery is crucial to ensure the success of the application…

Creating reliable smart utility metering systems for the real estate industry

Techem, in its quest to become the digital partner of choice for the real estate industry, has created an innovative smart reading system for utility meters, smart heat cost allocators and smoke detectors.

In order to accurately log energy and device status as well as consumption, Techem smart readers are connected wirelessly per OMS to end devices throughout a building. These smart readers send consumption and status info per mobile communication via cloud to the Techem data center which then automatically creates billing and energy reports for the properties.

The benefit of a precise system of billing and monitoring such as this is that residents get there bills fully automatically, are informed of their exact consumption and are subsequently incentivized to reduce consumption. The combination of billing and consumption monitoring verifiably reduces heating and water consumption by about approximately 20 %.  

Ensuring performance and reliability over an extended period of time
 

To power their smart meters, Techem have chosen Saft’s LSH cylindrical primary lithium cells.

“This smart system for consumption reading, monitoring and billing is a key step in our strategy to become the digital partner of choice for the real estate industry. We needed absolute confidence that the batteries would offer excellent performance over a long service life”, said Dr. Arne Kähler, Head of Research and Product Development at Techem.

To provide Techem with complete confidence in the battery’s capability, we carried out detailed modeling based on their device’s specific consumption profile and environmental parameters.

They needed a mature and reliable technology, capable of delivering the high pulse currents required for frequent wireless data reception and transmission, even at the end of their life. And of course, the life expectancy of the battery was crucial in this project.  

The lithium thionyl chloride (Li-SOCl2) electrochemistry that was specified for the smart reader feature, has established a reputation for reliability and long life in smart water and gas-metering applications, with hundreds of millions of batteries successfully deployed worldwide, hence our recommendation. More than 30 years of field and laboratory data enabled us to accurately predict the expected life of our batteries in this type of demanding Internet of Things (IoT) application.

For Techem, the high level of technical support for the selection of the ideal power solution was decisive in the choice of the final provider.

Techem’s IoT application combined with our battery solution will enable the system to go further, thus ensuring a better ROI for the application and a long-lasting economy solution for Techem’s customers. The new platform is now being rolled out across Germany as well as internationally. If you also have a device project and are looking for the perfect battery solution, get in touch with one of our experts. Your success is our priority!