State-of-the-art smart metering solution based on radio frequency communications

By project MonitorEE

Published on 22 November 2024

Romania

Nord-Vest

Cluj-Napoca

About this good practice

The issue is inefficient energy consumption, leading to higher costs and environmental impact.
RF Meters is an innovative start-up developing wireless smart metering solutions.
The Boosting and Widening Digital Innovation Hubs (BOWI Project, financed from H2020) and Transylvania Digital Innovation Hub played a significant role by providing €60,000 in funding, technical expertise, and business mentoring. The solution was developed, tested and installed in a public building (high-school) in Cluj-Napoca with the support of the Local Municipality through a pilot action within the REFLOW project having as main objective the development of a platform to support urban energy monitoring and the co-creation of the city’s energy transition. Several anomalies in the use of electricity in the building were discovered and solved, and together with the other installed systems (LED lighting with sensors) an increase in energy efficiency by approx. 20% was generated. The solution aims to optimize energy usage, cut costs, and enhance efficiency through smart energy management systems. These systems use smart meters and IoT technologies for real-time monitoring and control. The radio module is mounted on an adapter that reads electricity, gas and water. Data is processed using advanced algorithms to detect anomalies, predict trends, and suggest optimizations.
Stakeholders include energy providers, facility managers and business owners, benefiting from reduced costs and improved efficiency.

Resources needed

The cost for the development of the solution was 60.000 euro that included investment in equipment, testing facility through a pilot action but also for technical expertise. The team included 3 experts, one to develop the hardware solution, another for the software and one team coordinator.

Evidence of success

The Smart Metering System was installed in a high school in Cluj Napoca contributing to the reduction of energy consumption with more than 20%. Also, the solution was involved in the Pilot within REFLOW project to support several energy consumption analyses of municipality-owned buildings and public lighting hubs who have invested in energy efficiency. The aim was to co-design the city of Cluj-Napoca energy transition in order to contribute to the future local governance tools regarding energy.

Potential for learning or transfer

This good practice offers valuable insights due to its demonstrable success recepy. Being included in the pilot action for the development of a platform to support urban energy monitoring and the co-creation of the Culj-Napoca city’s energy transition it has demonstrated the applicability and potential for learning for other regions. The simplicity of its construction and the fact that in can be installed as a retrofit to existing systems also contributes to this fact.