Pre-payment journey

It is noteworthy, that Liberty was born at a time when the customers did not have much choice whilst using pre-payment electricity. Liberty as a system was revolutionary and because of the benefits, it left an indelible mark in Northern Ireland – there are over half a million Liberty users today.

In 2002 the NIE pre-payment project received a Special Commendation Award from The Capital Project Management Company. The judges were bowled over by the scheme and commented, “Truly amazing”.

*Security aspects of Liberty System: Secure’s Liberty system, was very secure from the very start. It is now maintained under ISO 27001, which is an internationally recognised Information Security Management Standard. Like any controlling standard it requires procedures and work instructions and is audited internally and externally. This gives better control and maintains the security of the Liberty system. Furthermore it helps us focus on business continuity. The procedures require that connections and changes to the system are requested in a secure and controlled manner.

“By taking advantage of the energy use information provided by the meter, households can reduce their energy consumption by up to 10%, perhaps more” After the initial success in Northern Ireland, Liberty made its overseas debut in New Zealand. Liberty was introduced to the New Zealand electricity market by NGC as an innovative pre-payment metering system. The meters were developed to meet the specific needs of the New Zealand market. An infrastructure that connected retailers’ vending channels to the Liberty server in the United Kingdom was set up.

The Liberty technology gave customers accurate and real time usage information and an ability to manage their usage. Working in partnership with Genesis Energy, the system underwent a successful pilot in the New Zealand market. Despite the pilot’s success, it did not result in a roll-out. NGC Energy Services General Manager, Owen Coppage expressed that the Liberty system was an example of the rapid developments in energy metering technology worldwide.

“This system takes the guesswork out of buying electricity. Customers using this meter can see how much credit they have remaining at any time, and how many more days it is likely to last based on the household’s consumption. There is an in-built alert mechanism when credit is running low.”

“Customers can see how much electricity they used yesterday, last week, last month or right now. They can also see the effect of simple energy management measures – like turning off unused appliances, or taking advantage of off-peak rates. Conversely, they can instantly assess additional electricity consumption when they turn on an appliance, like a heater.” “By taking advantage of the energy use information provided by the meter, households can reduce their energy consumption by up to 10%, perhaps more.” “But, of increasing importance, it is an energy management technology that allows anyone to constantly monitor their electricity use and to apply the information provided

“We were surprised that any single company could meet all of our demanding requirements”

In early 2000, Chittagong had distribution system losses >25%; well above the national average. These losses arose from defective meter installations, theft of electricity by manipulation or bypassing of meters, inaccuracies in the meter-reading process, invoicing errors and direct tapping of the power lines by the consumers. The financial viability of the utility was affected by the refusal of many customers to pay their bills. Only a small part of the invoiced consumption was collected as a result and often with considerable delay.

The government of Bangladesh invited international bids for a Pre-payment Metering Pilot Project in the city of Chittagong for 13,000 BPDB consumers for three different 11kV feeders. Feeders with high losses and poor revenue collection were identified for the pre-payment project which was funded by the Federal Republic of Germany in the form of a grant from KfW Bank. Consultants to BPDB for the project were Fichtner, Germany and UDS, South Africa. Liberty was positioned against a strong competition of established meter vendors from across the globe. Liberty worked on a different technology, which was not the norm. It helped the utility in better revenue management and end users by providing easy to understand usage information and it gave them more choice. Consultants from Germany and South Africa voted for Liberty, evaluating its benefits against others and choosing it as the solution to address the challenges of Chittagong city.

Liberty played an important role in solving the problem and bringing about a major transformation in the Bangladesh power sector

Liberty played an important role in solving the problem and bringing about a major transformation in

A noticeable reduction in energy consumption (approx. 46%) was observed with the use of Liberty Liberty slowly and gradually started making its mark in different parts of the globe – from Northern Ireland to New Zealand, to the Middle East to Bangladesh.

Pre-payment metering as a concept has often been difficult for utilities, regulators and consumers to accept voluntarily. At times, the policy and regulatory aspects don’t necessarily create an environment that is conducive to the introduction of pre-payment. For example in India, utilities have been reluctant to adopt pre-payment technology citing various reasons – it was difficult to create an acceptance for Liberty from a policy, tariff and legal standpoint.

Liberty was presented, demonstrated, and tried out in various utilities in India. After a trial installation in 2005 which showed substantial reduction of energy consumption, pre-paid meters were rolled out in 2007. The regulator offered a rebate to the consumers who opted into the programme. The regulator, whilst focused on the consumer’s interests, could foresee the value in introducing pre-payment metering. In 2005, before WBSEDCL decided to implement pre-paid metering, a sample study on consumption was carried out at the project site, Greenwood Park, New Town, Kolkata. A noticeable reduction in energy consumption (approx. 46%) was observed with the use of Liberty. Liberty pre-payment system was featured on NDTV News, in their ‘Value for Money’ programme, with positive reviews and feedback from Liberty users.

During that time, it was also given a lot of attention in print media and was covered by major newspapers like The Economic Times, The Times of India, and The Telegraph etc.

Liberty was the most appropriate solution to address the challenges the utility was facing and it helped to recover/minimise bad debts
 Tata Power Delhi (erstwhile NDPL or North Delhi Power Ltd) initiated pre-payment technology trials in 2005, and in 2007 the New Delhi government mandated that all government buildings would be fitted with pre-payment meters. Liberty was the most appropriate solution to address the challenges the utility was facing and it helped to recover/minimise bad debts.

The utility was both unable to collect dues from government departments and unable to disconnect them. Payments were frequently delayed because bills could not be verified. At times, it was unclear which department was responsible for payment. As a result the utility was facing financial difficulties.

With the introduction of pre-payment metering, arrears reduced because supply to the building disconnected automatically, without any external intervention, if the meter was not in credit.

2007 Reliance (BSES) The utility has found the system useful to manage its arrears and to manage its customers more effectively The first Liberty order from BSES Reliance for pilot pre-payment was received in 2007. The success of the pilot resulted in future roll-outs. BRPL (BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd), BYPL (BSES Yamuna Power Ltd) found the technology useful, and over the years ~20K users have started using Liberty. While it has provided convenience to the end users, the utility has found the system useful to manage its arrears and to manage its customers more effectively. 2008 A million transactions monthly

For the first time, the Liberty transaction servers reached the rare milestone of 1million transactions

A project that started with 117 meters now has ~40K Liberty users

A pilot project to deploy 117 pre-payment meters began in Assam in 2008. The pilot was very successful, and the utility gradually rolled out a large number of pre-payment meters in the Guwahati area. A project that started with 117 meters now has ~40K Liberty users. Both the geography and demography of the north eastern region are challenging, and it is worth mentioning, that a persistent and efficient Liberty support team has been put in place for handling customer issues. The team interacts regularly with the utility to increase their understanding of the system. This has helped the penetration of Liberty in the area. APDCL was the second utility, in India, to have pre-paid meter vending using their web site, CESC being the first.

2008 Utilita

Utilita has been using Liberty with great success both for its customers and for its business

Utilita is one of the leading suppliers of pre-payment gas & electricity in UK with the ‘lowest cost to serve’ a customer. Utilita has been using Liberty with great success both for its customers and for its business. Today Utilita has hundreds of thousands of Liberty users.

The vast majority of the UK population pays for their gas and electricity via direct debit, waiting for a bill every quarter which arrives after the energy has been used. This makes it very difficult to understand what you are using until a huge bill arrives. 19% of people in the UK (roughly 10 million) use pre-payment meters to pay for their energy and this number is expected to rise. Furthermore a disproportionate number of pre-payment meter users are on low incomes.

For the first time since Liberty came online (9 years ago) the disaster recovery (DR) was invoked and to everyone’s surprise, it was carried out with a downtime of less than 30 minutes. Our biggest customer at that time, NIE was very pleased that all went well.

Making Liberty deployments convenient around the world

The web based Liberty system was launched in 2011, to enable large numbers of geographically dispersed real estate customers across the world. This made the deployment of Liberty system easier to manage, as it eliminated the need for the installation of Liberty client software on desktops. Web based vending brought in the convenience of an easy to use, yet highly secure system for the generation of vend tokens, making Liberty deployments convenient around the world.

To have a multi-fuel system supported by Liberty, was something big, something different and was much needed by Liberty customers

The Liberty family covers a wide range of prepayment applications, from traditional single-phase through to multi-fuel (electricity, gas and heat) metering installations. Liberty extended its support for dual fuel in 2006, when it started supporting gas meters using the same Liberty platform.

The gas meters can be used as part of a dual fuel smart meter installation, in which case credit can be seamlessly transferred by GSM/GPRS signals without any intervention from the consumer. In addition to the prepayment function, the shut-off valve can be operated remotely in an emergency.

In 2007, a demonstration to show the benefits that smart metering could deliver to the domestic consumer was given to Elliot Morley, who was UK Government Minister for Climate Change and Environment at that time.

The Minister was very impressed with both the data available on the IQ+ display and the fact that he would be able to see his consumption patterns on the Internet. He said “I would like to have one of these in my home so that I could prove that my heating controls are working properly”.

Secure completed its first multi-fuel installations, heat, electricity and water, for the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham (LBBD) in 2011. To have a multi-fuel system supported by Liberty, was something big, something different and was much needed by Liberty customers.

Customers have found pre-payment the most convenient way to purchase electricity and have developed the habit of paying for it.

This North Eastern state had one of the highest AT&C losses. The Chief Minister was determined to improve things and set the SEB to deploy pre-payment metering in the state. Liberty was used in their first trial area where losses were >70%; losses halved. Most importantly though, customers have found pre-payment the most convenient way to purchase electricity and have developed the habit of paying for it.
Today, there are over 150K Liberty users.

Lt. General NK Singh (Director General of Indian Army in the North East), said with reference to Manipur “The Manipur electricity situation has been totally transformed by your pre-payment meters and as a result the economic situation is improving and people are a lot happier. This helps the peace process. “ General Singh recommended use of these meters in all north eastern states including Nagaland at the North East Council meeting.
An excerpt from the article, ‘An experiment with Power – prepaid electricity in Manipur reduces power theft; improves supply,’ written by Mr. Bibek Debroy:
“People have been jailed for stealing electricity and tampering with meters. The power situation has improved. Collections from payments of electricity bills have increased. At the same time, demand for electricity has reduced by 50 per cent and tripping incidents have become rarer. The number of consumers has also gone up. One should reiterate that this is an increase in the number of legal consumers. There is better planning — on the supply side — and there is no need for VIP lines (those guaranteed uninterrupted power supply regardless of what was happening in the rest of Manipur).
My respondents — not just people who work for the government — told me all this with a sense of

The Liberty system delivered to its expectations, and the utility decided to roll it out to a large number of customers A successful pilot was carried out in Oman for the Liberty pre-payment metering system in 2013. The project was launched to help the utility address metering challenges for temporary connections, non-paying customers and tenanted properties. The Liberty system delivered to its expectations, and the utility decided to roll it out to a large number of customers. The Liberty system was launched as ‘Sabiq’ (in Arabic, one of the meanings is ‘first’). Thousands of meters have been installed in phases since 2014.

After the success of Liberty at MEDC, the Electricity Holding Company of Muscat called for a nationwide pilot of pre-payment metering. Today Liberty pre-payment vending is supported by more than 60 online vending stations in Muscat. To provide further convenience for its Liberty users, the utility launched a mobile application for vending of electricity pre-payment vouchers.

The Liberty 100 solution is truly innovative and has been tested to collect data from more than 1 million metering points within minutes Liberty kept changing its avatar based on the needs of its global customers. Initially, from empowering users to manage and control their electricity usage using the iconic keypad, it helped them manage remote vending using GSM/GPRS. Gradually it helped them manage multi-fuel applications like usage of electricity, gas and heat.

When the UK government mandated the roll-out of smart meters (the next generation of gas and electricity meters) to give users more control over their energy use, to help them understand their bills (by allowing them to see the cost of energy they use), and enabling them to change supplier, Liberty went through a major transformation.

Unlike the previous Liberty variants, this time, the challenge was high reliability and scalability, considering the product was to be installed across Great Britain in millions of houses (UK plans to have 53 million smart meters by 2020). The new system also needed to gather meter readings remotely from millions of smart meters and to change tariffs, operate pre-pay etc. The system needed to be flexible so that utilities could easily integrate the system within their IT systems. A very low operating cost and the highest levels of data security were key features.

The next generation Liberty, better known as Liberty 100 was born. Liberty 100 became the first SMETS1 compliant smart pre-payment meters in the UK. An innovative and customer friendly smart meter, it has found wide acceptance amongst energy users. The Liberty 100 solution is truly innovative and has been tested to collect data from more than 1 million metering points within minutes. 2014 Meghalaya pre-payment started in Aug/Sept

At the European Smart Metering & Smart Grid Awards held in London Secure’s Liberty 100 system was chosen as the Data Management Solution of the Year 2015, for the retrieval and processing of smart meter data. Nominations for this prestigious award are made by actual users of smart metering / smart grid technologies. An international jury of experts in technology and users selected the winners.

Sanjaya Singhal, Group Chief Executive, Secure Meters group, said “We are delighted that our European customers have bestowed this honour on us. Secure team, committed to our core values of innovation, teamwork, integrity and agility has worked very hard to deliver this complex product. Such accolades are a huge encouragement for us to perform even better.”

The team heard positive reviews from both utility engineers as well as users.

The initial success of Liberty in West Bengal drew the attention of various utilities to the new payment system. In 2012, UP was facing challenges with its energy shortage, metering, billing and collecting revenue from its consumers.

CMD, UPPCL instructed its team to visit West Bengal and study the pre-payment system. The team heard positive reviews from both utility engineers as well as users. They found the load limiting switch in Liberty very useful for limiting excessive demand. Having talked to consumers, they saw strong evidence of budgeting, load limiting and energy conservation.

UPPCL engineers concluded that pre-paid meters can help in managing the power shortage problems faced in UP, apart from proving much cheaper for consumers. Seeing the benefits Liberty could offer, UPPCL team strongly recommended that the utility implement pre-paid metering for the following consumers in the first phase, and on priority- mobile towers, temporary connections, government and non-government colonies, multi-point connections in multi-storey buildings, theft prone areas etc.

Based on recommendations a detailed study was carried out to address inherent challenges related to the IT system, regulatory issues and tariff implementation. Appropriate actions were put in place. Liberty meters were installed in various cities in 2015 and there are currently over 5000 Liberty users using pre-payment electricity.

On 5th February, 2016, we achieved the milestone of 1,000,000 Liberty 100 meters in Great Britain. This was an absolutely amazing feat and one that makes each member proud to be a Semsite! It is the result of collaboration across the group and everyone in the organisation has had a role to play in it.

Liberty makes its first large scale presence in the African continent

The Electricity Company of Ghana has been using pre-paid meters since 1994. The meters have been changed frequently, due to changes in technology and most of them were not designed to be future proof. In the last few years, ECG has been struggling to cope with so many customers tampering with their meters and stealing electricity. Moreover, customers are complaining about lack of transparency in the way their money is deducted by the pre-paid meters. More and more customers are reluctant to clear their debt, which is making life difficult for ECG.

ECG heard about our advanced Liberty pre-payment system, and having studied its benefits decided to run a pilot for 50 meters. This was successful, as it addressed most of their challenges, and also the design is future proof. ECG’s evaluation helped them make a strategic decision to try out Liberty. An initial order for 10K Liberty meters has been placed by ECG, and based on the field results, Liberty could be deployed on a much larger scale. With this, Liberty makes its first large scale presence in the African continent.