スマート水道計量

先日、「AWSとSemtechを用いたLoRaWAN® ソリューションによる水道とガスのIoT簡素化（Simplify IoT for Water and Gas Using LoRaWAN® Solutions with AWS and Semtech） 」と題したウェビナーを開催させていただきました。このウェビナーでは、LoRaWANの導入、効率の向上、コストの削減、運用全体の最適化のユースケースに焦点を当て、台頭するIoTテクノロジーを掘り下げ、水道およびガス市場の成長予測について説明しました。 

インテリジェント・プロセス・オートメーションの中核となるのはデータですが、そのデータはどこから来るのでしょうか？電力会社にとって、正確なデータを遠隔で収集することが常に課題となっています。このため、データ収集システムが断片化され、企業と消費者に真の変化をもたらすのに必要な規模でのデータ分析の使用が制限されています。

The European Committee for Standardization (CEN) has officially created a new working group under its Technical Committee TC294 to specify a new adaptation layer for M-Bus protocol used mainly in smart water meters, smart gas meters and smart heat meters. This new working group, called CEN TC294 WG7, is led by expert from Birdz, a subsidiary of Nova Veolia, a successful leader in the European smart metering ecosystem, and member of the LoRa Alliance®. In 2019, Semtech hosted a webinar with Birdz to highlight its proven use cases for transforming municipal water distribution networks leveraging the LoRaWAN® protocol for greater efficiency and cost savings.

IHS Markit predicts up to 43 percent of all low power wide area networks (LPWANs) will be based on Semtech’s LoRa® devices and the LoRaWAN® protocol by 2023*. As of December 2019, more than half a million LoRa-enabled gateways have been deployed globally, supporting 135 million LoRa-based end nodes**. With the global adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) solutions and the growing market share of LoRa-enabled applications, it is becoming more and more difficult to identify a business segment that could not benefit from some level of connected devices. With new LoRa use cases being announced regularly, and growing numbers of worldwide LoRaWAN network deployments (public or private), it seems the only limit to these applications is the imagination of the developers and system integrators solving real world business challenges today.

As the global market for smart water meters continues to grow, Semtech hosted, “Deploying Smart Water Meters: How to Transition from AMR to AMI with LoRa®-based Solutions from Birdz,” a webinar with Birdz, a subsidiary of Nova Veolia and a global leader in optimized resource management. The webinar discussed strategies for utility providers to improve meter efficiency by adopting fixed network solutions based on Semtech’s LoRa devices and the LoRaWAN® protocol.

The market for smart utility meters is growing at a rapid pace. A recent report by ABI Research predicts there will be an installed base of 1.34 billion meters by 2023*. IHS Markit forecasts almost 50 million smart water meters will ship globally in 2023, a number which is roughly four times its size in 2017. Year over year, the number of new meter shipments for water, gas, heat and electricity is increasing at a rate of four to five percent according to IHS. Globally, the proportion of smart meters will soon exceed half of all meters shipped annually. The largest utility adopters of Internet of Things (IoT) technology for smart metering devices are electricity (64 percent), followed by gas (38 percent) and then water (26 percent). Behind these strong growth numbers, the adoption of smarter technologies for metering is predicted to continue for the foreseeable future.

The Czech Republic in Central Europe has 10.6 million inhabitants over an area of 78,866 square kilometers (30,450 sq. miles). Since the 1970s, Czech Radiocommunications (CRA), based in Prague, has been the sole provider of broadcasting television and radio to citizens nationwide.

In Paris this November, Semtech will be again exhibiting at European Utility Week, the world’s foremost annual smart utilities and metering conference. Last year in Vienna, the conference drew more than 12,000 visitors and this year’s attendance is expected to increase by half. We will be among the over 800 exhibiting companies at the Paris event, and will be showcasing Semtech’s LoRa® devices and the LoRaWAN® protocol for innovative utility metering applications. This blog is part one of a three-part series on the benefits of LoRa for utilities leading up to the event.

I have just returned from Mobile World Congress (MWC), the most anticipated mobile industry event of the year with 109,000 visitors from 198 countries, and I’m in awe of the pace of innovation in the Internet of Things (IoT) market, as well as the speed at which technologies are rapidly evolving to market-ready solutions. This observation could not be more true for Semtech’s LoRa® devices and wireless radio frequency technology (LoRa Technology).

Water is one of the more expensive items on the utility bill – costing Americans on average  $15-$77 per month. From the dishwasher and washing machine, to toilets and the shower, water use is unavoidable. At the same time, consumers all around the globe are aware of the need to conserve water in order to minimize environmental impact, prevent drought and create a more sustainable planet.  A recent report from ABI Research indicates IoT smart city technologies could drive more than $20 trillion in economic benefits by 2026.