How MOJEC uses smart-metering technology to solve Nigeria’s power crisis

MOJEC International Limited, an indigenous meter manufacturing company, has introduced smart metering technology to solve Nigeria’s power problems, according to a statement by the organisation.

The electricity supply industry worldwide is moving to a digitalized system, a drive borne out of the increase in technology and human curiosity to probe and know the digital truth, the statement read.

Hence, the introduction of Smart Meters allows users access to data that empowers them with the knowledge to make their choices. This includes deciding and paying only for the energy used or automatically knowing the equivalent value of electricity consumption.

According to the statement, in the UK, Electricity de France (EDF) is improving customer experience and cutting losses with its at-home display smart meter that shows customer energy usage almost in real-time.

However, this means that users get to see how much energy they are using in pounds and pence, ultimately eliminating estimated billing, which has been one of the challenges facing Nigeria’s power sector.

Achieving these possibilities in Nigeria a few years ago seemed hard or nearly impossible because most electricity consumers were still using analog meters, while some were not using meters at all but estimated billings, the statement read.

However, MOJEC has ensured that Nigerian electricity consumers have access to meters and introduced smart metering technology to solve Nigeria’s power problem.

“It established a state-of-the-art electricity meter plant in Nigeria with a production capacity of over 2,400,000 meters per year, designed to serve local African markets, the EMEA, and neighbouring markets, and fully equipped to handle customers’ demand,” the statement said.

“MOJEC also pioneered the Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) system in Nigeria, and as early as 2011, the company deployed the AMI system in Ibadan distribution company (DISCO), Ikeja DISCO, EKO DISCO, Enugu DISCO, Abuja DISCO, Yola DISCO, and Jos DISCO.”

AMI is also called a fast solution system and is more of a monitoring application for the meter.

Read also: MOJEC, Eko Disco extend mobile MAP penetration to bridge metering gap

According to MOJEC, the Meter communicates with the AMI platform. It drops hourly data, meaning that you get feedback from the meter every hour. It states the load profile and instantaneous energy data from the meter like the voltage, current, frequency, and other information on the consumers’ consumption remotely. The meter enables someone at the back end to see and access your readings, and you get billed on it.

However, as early as 2011, MOJEC has been rolling out smart meters, and currently, over eight thousand meters are deployed and monitored remotely.

Currently, MOJEC meters are smart, starting from the residential customers; single-phase, three-phase meters; low voltage city-operated meters, which are called LVMD meters (they could be postpaid or prepaid); and they are for industrial customers that have personal transformers.

Wole Solanke, head, IT/Senior Electrical Engineer research and development manager, MOJEC, said, “the company markets these products, and the introduction of the AMI was meant to push the DisCos to see the importance of smart metering over the normal meters being deployed by people back then.”

In addition, MOJEC could get leverage and increase its market share by utilising smart metering, and many DisCos bought into it.

Also, MOJEC was then able to do several pilot projects with the Discos on the AMI platform, and more meters were bought with this approach, while other Discos came on board to market their meters through the platform.

“MOJEC partners with Eko Electricity Distribution Company, the first electricity distribution company to deploy the CAPMI (Credit Advance Payment for Metering Implementation) scheme in Nigeria,” the statement said.

“This pushed it to launch full scale into the electricity market post-privatisation of the power sector in Nigeria, and since its inception, the company has achieved an 80 percent footprint in nine out of eleven of the electricity distribution companies in Nigeria.”

The statement said Mojec International donated N2million to the runner-up at the Lagos Smart Meter Hackathon, which was an initiative of the Lagos State Government in collaboration with the Eko Innovation Centre to engage local technological talents to design and produce smart and affordable meters to bridge the metering gap in Lagos State and Nigeria as a whole.

MOJEC said that it sponsored the Hackathon as part of its commitment to bridging the metering gap in the Nigerian power sector. The event witnessed 274 participants in the software and hardware categories, while 65 hardware and software prototypes were submitted by applicants, with ten teams emerging as finalists.

The shortlisted finalists under the hardware category were Cosmo Automation, Smart Energy, Techwizard, Power Bit Crunchers, and Gadozz Electricals, while the software finalists were Vectorians, Zeena Platform, Magnitronics, Chosen Soft Tech, and Gideon, it said.

Furthermore, MOJEC International, last year, also partnered with Sahara Foundation, Energy Training Centre, and Ikeja Electric to train several metering personnel through an end-user metering capacity-building programme in Lagos.

The company said that the partnership was part of efforts to improve and reinforce competence while driving upskilling among technicians in the Nigerian electricity supply industry.

“Supporting metering technicians with skills needed to drive efficient metering is consequential to enhancing sector performance,” MOJEC said. this would increase revenue collection, bolstering overall transmission and distribution capacity in addition to significant capital expenditure improvements in the industry.”