Olayide Folorunso, the co-founder of Fuelmetrics Limited, a startup in the energy automation space, speaks on technology adoption in the energy space and a potential AI disruption with Temitayo Jaiyeola.
Fuelmetrics has been at the forefront of automating the downstream oil and gas sector for a decade. How has the adoption of automation and digital solutions evolved within the downstream sector?
We have been doing this for about a decade, and the adoption of automation and digital solutions generally downstream has evolved significantly. This is driven by the greater need for businesses to be more efficient, transparent, and profitable, particularly at the point that we are now.
At some point, some businesses cared less about profitability as long as they could get government patronage. But now people are more focused on being profitable. Earlier in the decade, the sector was heavily reliant on manual processes, which led to many thefts and inventory discrepancies. There was poor record keeping, poor accounting, and poor data.
However, the rising demand for accountability and operational precision has made companies more willing to embrace technology in terms of automation and digitisation. We play a vital role in this particular space and have been instrumental in transforming the industry. Adopting technologies provides real-time data analytics for the players in this industry.
Players in the space can use this to make informed decisions. Fuel stations can now leverage these automation systems to monitor their oil stock level and sales, reduce thefts, and reduce fraud. It also helps them with their compliance and regulatory issues, and overall, they have good cost savings.
How will emerging technologies like AI transform the energy automation space?
Everyone is talking about AI and machine learning, which are obvious next steps for any technology company. Incorporating AI and ML into our Epump solution will revolutionise operations because it can help us provide predictive insights, automate decisions, and analyse data from the IoT sensors; this means that users can potentially identify equipment issues and perform predictive maintenance.
That would also mean that we can reduce unplanned downtime for the operators. Machine learning models can help us forecast demand, and some are already integrated. It can help us predict demand by analysing historical data. Operators won’t run out of inventory. ML models will be able to predict weather patterns and market trends and how well a business can do.
In addition, AI models would enhance fraud detection and flag anomalies. This will eventually help to increase the overall efficiency and operational efficiency of the business regarding security and profitability.
What do you do with the real-time data that you gather?
We leverage this data in our advanced technology at Epump. It helps to improve transparency and operational efficiency in terms of energy usage. This means that we can help our clients reduce fuel wastage.
We do this because we can do effective monitoring. This means that we help companies, and this is in terms of both operators within the space who are retailing fuel and those who are consuming. We help them contribute to a more sustainable and environmental approach to energy consumption by monitoring and cutting waste.
With specific instances, how has the Epump solution improved your users’ operational efficiency, transparency, and profitability?
When we began to work with one of our customers in 2018, they had just 18 fuel stations. You need to understand that part of the reason people cannot scale operations is because of operational headaches. But because of our solution, they have grown their retail outlets to 89.
Another station had about 73 retail outlets scattered across the country, and of those, they still had a few that they had leased to some other persons to manage because they could not entirely manage the network. But today, they have taken back their stations, are managing the network, and have grown their number of outlets to 176. We began managing this station in 2021.
With solutions like Epump, companies can manage their retail network remotely. Of course, they still have their people on the ground doing what they should be doing, but it makes management easy.
With the global growth of the EV market, how do you think your solution will evolve if EVs become more prominent in Nigeria?
We are not just focused on oil or petrol. We are an energy automation company. We provide innovative and affordable technology solutions to help businesses thrive. So, we are not just exactly limited to maybe fuel in terms of hydrocarbons and all of that.
We are ready to evolve where the world is regarding EVs. We have some research that we are doing both in terms of developing EV chargers and then, of course, looking at payment in terms of EV chargers. So, we are not limiting ourselves to fuel management systems.
We are looking at energy on a broader scale, and we are looking at the movements and knowing when the right time is to pivot and then begin to roll with it as the industry pivots.
What challenges have you had to weather since you began operations?
Part of the challenges we had was in the earlier days. The adoption of technology was low in the country, and there was a bias against homegrown technology.
We had a solution built in Africa for African businesses. But people thought that if you must have something good, it had to come from more advanced and developed countries. So, of course, there was that initial resistance.
But over time, that resistance has gone down completely. People have more faith in the business and the technology. Today, some of the challenges we still face have to do with general technology adoption. And then I would also say infrastructure challenges in terms of – because we are reliant on the – in some sense on internet services, which means that we are reliant on maybe some of the telcos and all of that.
To put it in context, our technology adoption is still relatively higher than the regional average. But, yes, a few countries on the continent have been able to automate all the stations within the country. We are on that pathway here, too.
What is the future of fuel station automation?
The future of fuel automation lies in creating what I’ll call highly connected and efficient customer-centric ecosystems that will integrate advanced technologies like IoT, AI, and renewable energy. So, stations will eventually transition from just being fuel dispensing points to integrated service hubs.
They’ll be offering diverse energy mixes and sources. Digital payments will play a key role in this data-driven customer experience. Automation will then focus on optimising every aspect of operations, including inventory management, prioritisation, and pricing. These systems will remain sustainable and comply with environmental regulations because environmental regulations will become a big deal.
Fuelmetrics will continue to play a pivotal role in shaping this particular future, leading the adoption of cutting-edge technologies, just like we have done with the formal equipment space. We will continue to set industry standards for automation, and our platform will drive the transformation of this transition from hydrocarbons to greener energy or when we get to EVs.
We are well-positioned to help our customers effectively transition into this future that is so close to us.
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