History |
In 1997 Microplan International B.V. got a request from a Dutch water board to work out a solution for easy disconnecting and reconnecting bad payers and defaulters from and to the water works. A prototype and blueprints of a chipcard based prepaid metering solution using a customized multi-jet turbine water meter inset placed in an injection moulded body and integrated valve was developed. Together with de water meter we also developed our first version of CFM32, our CashFlow Managementsystem application, running on any Windows PC for putting water credits onto the chipcards of the consumers.
In 1999 the meter and system was introduced and received with great enthusiasm on both national and international level. This resulted in founding a new private company by the name of ChipFlow B.V. with equal shares between the Dutch water board and Microplan International B.V. ChipFlow B.V. was the manufacturing and marketing company of the chipcard operated prepaid water meters for the global market. The function of the chipcard was also extended: not only used as a Water Wallet but also for retrieving metering data from the meters installed into the system. This sounds a bit cumbersome nowadays but at that time reliable internet or GPRS for battery operated devices was not common at all and quite expensive. First commercial cellular networks began to support GPRS in 2000 and metering data just had to be retrieved in a different way.
In 2001 we learned the hard way that chipcards, which are contact devices, used in harsh, sandy and dusty environments with varying ambient temperatures are not the best combination. Another growing problem was vandalism where customers inserted knives, spoons, sticks and glue into the chipcard slots.
This could only be solved by implementing non-contact or contactless devices as the water wallet and medium for retrieving metering data. Together with a major electronics company we jointly developed and implemented a Reader/Writer module in combination with a passive Near Field Communication Device or Transponder, which we called Tag. Special about this Transponder Tag was that you can not only read from it but also write data onto it in a safe, secure, wireless and encrypted way. Another requirement was that the Tag itself had to be a passive device because we did not want a customer having to deal with an empty battery in their water wallet, resulting in being cut off and not having access to drinking water because water is a basic and first need in life.
Just after the first shipments and installations of the new version Transponder Tag Operated Prepaid Water Meter a new Board of Directors was installed at the Dutch water board. The new Board Of Directors was instructed to focus on local affairs by the share holders. This was contradicting the business model of ChipFlow B.V. wich was focussed on the global market. ChipFlow B.V. was forced to stop in the year 2006 even though all parties involved did see a bright future for ChipFlow B.V. It would be such a waste of investements, time, development power en knowledge. Therefore Microplan International B.V. founded a new independant company TagMeter Systems B.V.
Because standing still is the fastest way of moving backwards in a rapidly changing world we were also looking for new technologies for measuring water flow and volume for domestic/residential applications: Ultrasonic Metering. TagMeter Systems embraced the idea of a meter without mechanical parts, no wear or tear of the meter and not measuring air, particles and grit in the water flow. An Ultrasonic Water Meter is the future for measuring flow and volume and has many benefits compared to the mechanical conventional meters. The water meters of TagMeter became fully digital. We also kept in mind that the world will be more and more digital with better and stable implementation of internet connections and cloud based storage of metering data.
Where we are standing now |
TagMeter Systems focus is to Ultrasonic Water Metering and we we keep on developing, innovating and finding new and better ways in prepaid metering and gathering metering data.
We extended the water meter portfolio with bulk and irrigation water meters and domestic/residential water meters which are not prepaid. Subsequently we also developed a Smart Valve concept for after market or conversion of bulk and non-prepaid water meters into prepaid metering versions.
All TagMeter water meters now can communicate with our IoT Cloud Servers and Smart Meter Managing System in the same way using LoRa, LoRaWAN, GPRS or NB-IoT. A REST-API interface for third parties her been developed and is fully operational. Not only for gathering metering data but also for controlling the meters and sending commands to them either via de SMMS system at the IoT Cloud or via our REST-API interface for third parties. These controlling commands include Opening and Closing valve, sending prepaid water credits and many other commands. Last but not least also Gateway's and Concentrators have been developed where up to 8000 water meters per day can be managed with a single Gateway/Concentrator.
TagMeter Systems believes that Ultrasonic Metering is the way to go forward. Gathering metering data via Internet of Things or The IoT-Cloud using LoRa, LoRaWAN, GPRS and NB-IoT is becoming more common and stable nowadays. Internet is almost everywhere possible and available. We have a stable IoT Cloud Server Platform including Smart Meter Management System and we are able to install it remotely and locally.
Without any doubts it is indeed possible to have Prepaid or Postpaid Meters and a Metering System without the need of chipcards, Tokens, Tags, voucher codes or any external physical device. When using our LoRa or LoRaWAN technology this even can be realtime and gathering metering data, controlling meters and topping them up with newly purchased water credits has never been that easy. We can supply Prepaid Water Meters, Postpaid Water Meters, AMR/AMI IoT Cloud connected Water Meters and Bulk Water Meters including Gateway's and Concentrators.
Besides the metering department we are active in the field of descaling equipment for removing lime from installations and we supply water purification equipment and installations for making drinkable water from brackish or salinated water using nano filtration, reverse osmosis and optional remineralization of the processed water.
