Increasing

energy
efficiency

The future is exciting.

Ready?

1
 Techem
CASE STUDY

A reliable and cost- Customer profile

effective way to increase Techem

energy efficiency IoT Portfolio

With Narrowband-IoT from Vodafone, Techem

can track energy consumption reliably and Vertical Energy & Utilities
cost-effectively, and also help customers increase
their energy efficiency. Germany Country

The challenge
Segment MNC
Optimising meter reading

Techem is a world-leading provider of energy billing

and management services for the property sector.
Founded in 1952, it has more than 3,600 staff in more Both processes work well and reliably in practice, but there
than 20 countries, covering 11 million homes. Techem is still room for improvement. The main disadvantage of
has around 150 offices around the world, including more mobile data collection is that the company still has to
than 60 in Germany alone. send an employee to the relevant property to take the
The company’s services help to increase heat and water meter readings. With stationary collection, every master
efficiency within the property sector. Its products and data collector needs 230 volts power supply.
solutions save around 6.9 million tonnes of CO2 per year. Its location also must be chosen carefully to ensure
These solutions include optimised fuel procurement, that it has sufficient mobile coverage. Plus, the radio
innovative energy supply solutions for residential and standard currently in use has limitations as it is unable
commercial properties, metering and billing of heat and to penetrate thick concrete walls and transmit signals
water consumption, intelligent solutions for controlling from deep cellars.
heating systems and radiators, and energy monitoring for
property owners and users. For these reasons, and to further improve and digitise its
processes, Techem decided to look for a simpler and more
As the market leader in remote radio metering of flexible solution when collecting meter readings.
energy consumption in homes and commercial buildings,
Techem is driving integration and digital processes in the
property sector. The solution
A key element of Techem’s range of services is reliable Highly reliable data transmission
and legally-compliant metering of heat and water
consumption in rented and owner-occupied homes, Techem tested a number of different technologies before

’’
as well as commercial properties. The company has been deciding on a solution based on LTE Cat NB1 (Narrowband-
using radio-based technology for this for many years. IoT) and a close partnership with Vodafone.
Meter readers use a ‘walk-by’ process to collect readings
from electric meters using mobile devices. Plausibility
checks are then carried out to avoid transmission errors We tested other technological
and other issues.
approaches to Narrowband-IoT
In certain circumstances, Techem also uses a stationary
radio solution to read meters. It installs fixed data recorders
thoroughly but concluded
in buildings to collect the readings from the meters around that they would not be as
them. The data recorders then transmit this information promising for a number of
onto a master data recorder, which uses GPRS to transmit
the readings to the Techem server via the Vodafone
different reasons.
mobile network. Dr Arne Kähler
Head of Research & Development, Techem

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Techem
CASE STUDY

“We had been watching this technology for some time “On top of this, the modern technology also gives us a
and had actually played an active role in the technical foundation for further improvements, particularly in terms
development of Narrowband-IoT,” says Dr Arne Kähler, of developing new applications and business models,”
Head of Research & Development at Techem. “We tested explains Dr Daniel Ghebru, responsible for innovation
other technological approaches thoroughly but concluded management at Techem. “Having a better understanding of
that they would not be as promising for a number of energy flows and consumption opens up new opportunities
different reasons.” for improving energy efficiency in the field of smart
buildings and smart homes.”As well as taking meter
Unlike the other technologies they tested, Narrowband-IoT
readings and billing heat and water consumption, Techem
(NB-IoT) impressed the development engineers at Techem
also offers its customers expert advice on how to reduce
with its low energy consumption, highly reliable data
their energy consumption. This helps them not only to
transmission, ability to penetrate building materials,
lower their bills, but also reduce their CO2 emissions and
and the Europe-wide consistency and availability of its
therefore help protect the climate. As a member of the
radio network.
‘Smart Living’ business initiative founded by the German
“As we were already working with Vodafone for the radio Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and other
components of our existing solutions and saw the company German companies, Techem is doing its part to make living
as a leader in the development of both IoT solutions and and working more comfortable, safer and more efficient
Narrowband-IoT, we decided to work with it again when through digitisation and intelligent, connected systems.
we tested the technology,” says Carsten Plachetta, Head of
Smart Systems & Monitoring at Techem.
Together, the experts from Techem and Vodafone carried
Why Vodafone?
out laboratory tests and developed devices and applications • Considerable improvement in radio communication
for operation in the live Vodafone network. The first step within buildings
was to swap the fixed, stationary data collectors for devices • Simple, robust and energy efficient transmission of
with integrated NB-IoT. Master data collectors were then no meter readings
longer required as every device could transmit the readings • Foundation for further digitisation of business
it collected to Techem itself at determined intervals. processes, new applications and business models
“In the long-term, we see opportunities to use NB-IoT in • Helping to lower energy consumption, reducing CO2
every end device, so we can then remove intermediate data emissions and protecting the environment
collectors from the process entirely,” says Dr Kähler.
This more robust and energy efficient method of data About Techem
transmission itself is going to prove to be of great benefit
to Techem and its customers – meter readings can be Techem is a world-leading provider of energy billing and
taken considerably faster and more easily. The use of management services for the property sector. It was
NB-IoT also supports the further digitisation of Techem’s founded in 1962 and now employs over 3,600 staff in
business processes. more than 20 countries.
• techem.com

’’ As we were already working

with Vodafone on our existing
solutions and saw the company as
a leader in the development of IoT
solutions and Narrowband-IoT, we
decided to work with it again when
we tested the technology.
Carsten Plachetta
Head of Smart Systems & Monitoring, Techem
Business site Case studies

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