Humans make mistakes, no matter who and how. Nowadays, this fact is especially relevant within the utility industry. The current energy crisis is urging consumers to either install a smart meter or frequently read their meters. But did you know that there’s still a large population of energy consumers who refuse to install a smart meter?
This leads to manual meter readings, and that’s where human error comes in. You may not have heard of it before, but a meter reading software that’s improved by AI actually exists - and it is it isdesigned to provide 99.8% accuracy, customer satisfaction, and cost reduction.
Meter reading software is a technology that gathers usage data from utility meters (water, gas, electricity). It can transfer consumption data to a central portal for billing and analysis.
This technology can be improved through AI, where consumers can collect usage data automatically by photographing their meters.
The importance of meter reading software lies in its ability to communicate from a distance, allowing customers to read and submit their own data. However, there’s no way to assist customers in collecting the right data.
With an improved meter reading software that relies on AI, reading meters can be done within seconds by the simple act of taking a photo. Additionally, customers get real-time assistance to ensure full accuracy of data collection. This benefits energy providers who still perform manual meter readings, a process that is known for being time and money-consuming, but also prone to errors.
Utility companies are currently being challenged by rising energy prices, a crisis that leads to increased demand for accurate usage data and improved data collection methods.
Here are 2 cases where companies applied this metering system and improved their operations:
Stedin is one of the largest energy providers in The Netherlands, with over 2.2 million customers. When introduced to utility meter reading software, Stedin began collecting data in a smarter way. Now, Stedin finds it unnecessary to send meter readers to households. The traditional meter reading process took a lot of time, and human errors resulted in unhappy customers, wondering why their bills were so high.
Due to this, Stedin spent a lot of time and money on administrative tasks and validations for errors. When they integrated Blicker as their go-to solution for capturing meter readings, the outcome was phenomenal:
With 2.4 million customers, Brabant Water ensures clean and safe drinking water across the southern part of The Netherlands. Writing down meter readings and serial numbers was becoming inefficient for Brabant Water, seeing as 7% of the readings submitted by their customers required manual validation. Similarly to Stedin, Brabant Water realized that this was time-consuming, costly, and required unwanted additional communication with their customers.
As soon as Blicker was integrated, Brabant Water helped customers get readings right the first time with just one picture from their smartphone. The meter information is automatically stored in Brabant Water’s database. This resulted in:
For Dutch households, Blicker will be free during wintertime. This opens doors for getting accurate consumption data, providing consumers with the ability to do regular meter readings by taking a simple picture with their smartphones.
Meter reading softwares are integrated by many companies in the utility industry, ultimately leading them to a better workflow lower costs, and a higher customer satisfaction rate.
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