Connecting the city
Connecting the city Smart Cities need smart partners – Macrocomm is one PROFILE SONA 2020 caused a big stir when President Cyril Ramaphosa commented that municipalities will be able to source energy from Independent Power Producers (IPPs) in future. The importance of this policy shift cannot be overstated in terms of the potential to liberate South African businesses from the “load-shedding nightmare” that has plagued the economy in recent years. At the same time, municipalities are going to need capable partners to develop the capacity to take on energy supplied from different sources and ultimately achieve Smart City status. Private sector companies, too, will benefit from a partner that can introduce smart systems to reduce water and electricity costs. Such a partner would be Macrocomm, a company that has grown from humble origins to become a specialist in the smart utilities field. Opportunity spoke to CEO Sivi Moodley to find out more. How did Macrocomm begin? Macrocomm was established in 2005 with the objective of reselling voice and data contracts on behalf of the major network operators. We then evolved into an Internet of Things (IoT) company focused on engineering solutions, water management solutions, vehicle and asset tracking, fleet analytics, smart healthcare, technology, smart metering, telecommunications and training. How would you describe the nature of your business in a nutshell? Our primary objective is to consult with the customer to understand their needs and then design bespoke solutions. We believe that technology is an enabler to solve challenges faced by the customer — we do not focus on selling technology for the sake of technology. Once we consult, we provide the correct IoT devices to be able to collect information using valuable networks. We are carrier-agnostic and use GSM, Sigfox, Lora, Bluetooth, MBLT, or whatever is appropriate for the particular use case. That information is then stored and processed to ensure that the integrity of the data is protected and to ensure the confidentiality and safety of the clients’ data. We then use our Big Data analytic platform to provide the customer with a usable dashboard and analytics in order to make appropriate business decisions What milestones have you passed to date? Macrocomm is one of the leading IT companies in South Africa with more than 100 connected devices on a similar platform. We have achieved Level 1 BBBEE (Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment), ISO 9001 and 45001, CIDB grade 8 and our software platform has been vetted by the CSIR. What is your track record in designing and deploying smart utility management solutions? One of the core focus areas of Macrocomm has been designing solutions to address the critical needs of municipalities in South Africa by providing appropriate technology to accurately measure water and electricity usage for municipalities and integrating it into their billing systems. We start by doing an audit to understanding problems in the municipality and find out where the leakages and disadvantages are before deploying technology. As previously mentioned, technology is an enabler to solve problems faced by the municipality. To date we have helped municipalities considerably with their electricity and water billing using our Eureka platform as well as our smart IoT technologies in the field. We also provide utility management services, not only for municipalities, but also for private sector clients, to determine accurate water and electricity costs per production line to get to proper cost accounting. The company also provides this service for large residential estates. Macrocomm is then able to provide accurate billing to residents especially in a bulk metering scenario. Sivi Moodley, Group CEO What is your revenue assurance model and what are the benefits? We provide a fully managed service that aims to be accurate, provide ease of access to data, comply with the criteria of the Energy Regulator, provide consumer satisfaction and decrease account disputes. We utilize our in-house general field management tool by job scheduling and understanding exactly where the smart meters are installed with GPS location. We provide various levels of in-field training as well as accredited training to the installer. We source from local communities to create jobs and provide opportunities for 16 | www.opportunityonline.co.za
usiness. The IoT platform monitors all aspects of the service provider and provides accurate reporting and intelligence for the municipality to improve service delivery. Our revenue assurance model enables utilities to identify and mitigate distribution losses that arise due to energy theft, energy diversion, water theft, billing errors and unmetered consumers. Our revenue model consist of two parts: • Smart hardware, namely GSM, PLC, RF, ultra narrowband and chirp spread spectrum enabled • An advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) system that works via two-way machine-to-machine (M2M) communication and has the ability to do automated bill generation, energy fraud detection, fault detection, consumption augmentation, seamless system integration and statistical analysis. What makes your smart metres smart? Our smart meters work via two-way communication where data can be collected and commands sent remotely via our meter data management system. They are high accuracy meters enabling utilities to monitor all essential factors of power grids such as voltage, current, active/reactive and import/export power and all power-quality items. The hot plug-play modular design of our smart meters enables utilities to deploy them in different environments with different communication requirement. Our smart meters can support different communication modules such as RS485, PLC, RF, 2G, 3G and Ethernet technologies. As interoperability is an important factor in smart metering to guarantee a future smart grid, our meters are designed according to the DLMS COSEM open standard protocol to ensure utilities’ investment. Our smart meter field management model consists of three phases: pre-deployment, deployment and post-deployment. In pre-deployment, we determine what product is best suited based on a needs analysis. Then in deployment we implement the product and in post deployment, monitor services. What do today’s energy consumers expect regarding data? Accuracy of data is key. The biggest challenge that the South African market has is that they don’t trust electricity bills because of estimation. We alleviate this this by providing users with true real-time readings via an app. This boosts confidence that the bill is correct. Municipal customers who implement our solutions therefore benefit from accurate and correct billing, live monitoring of consumer consumption profiles, an increasedly proactive approach to revenue protection and ensured revenue enhancement. What does the term “Smart City” mean to you? A Smart City is an urban area that uses different types of electronic IoT applications to collect data. The current challenge in this country is that everybody talks about Smart Cities without realising that you have to build into a Smart City. We at Macrocomm ensure that utilities can collect data from smart IoT devices and we firmly believe in a long-term approach where we build a smart precinct that eventually links to a Smart City. Ultimately, when we talk of smart cities, we need devices to collect data in order to make a city smart. It’s not about the technology but rather how the system improves quality of life and service delivery to individuals using appropriate technology to improve energy efficiency, management of transport and management of health care. Application that can be implemented include smart utility management, traffic management, public transport time-tables, parking, public transport and street lighting. What are the benefits of Smart Street Lights Smart LED Lighting? Smart LED streetlights provide improved lighting quality with improved lighting levels and higher uniformities, with the additional benefit of energy savings, which directly impacts utility expenditure. These streetlights also reduce a utility’s ecological footprint. Owing to colour change, LED technology also creates the impression of safer roads as objects can be identified earlier and in full colour, which reduces the reaction time for motorists and pedestrians alike, thereby reducing accidents and the crime rate. What is the importance of analytics in developing the Smart City? Ensuring the safety of citizens in any scenario is a top priority for any city. Predictive analysis can helpful in studying historical and geographical data to recognize when and where crimes are likely to happen. A significant amount of improvement will be seen when the desired data turns a city into a much safer place. What does “turning data into meaningful information” mean? It is very important to have the proper analytic tools to cut the clutter and provide useful information that impacts on problem-solving management decisions. If you look at the Macrocomm brand, it always says “smart made simple”, taking the information and helping you make simple smart decisions to improve people’s lives. We have the ability help municipalities develop to achieve Smart City status with the right technology. PROFILE www.opportunityonline.co.za | 17
