A Kenyan innovation addict has invented a smart power meter that is set to revolutionize the consumers’ buying and loading tokens.
chief executive of Numeral IOT, Morris Mbetsa, has created a meter that does not need manual input of tokens from Kenya Power, which many find laborious.
This automatically loads them and delivers a confirmation message to the user.
With the improvement the meter can monitor power consumption, meaning a user can set daily or monthly energy targets.
The enhancement also allows one to transfer tokens to their cellphones when they are relocating, a feature that has been missing. As evident it’s common to “surrender” tokens when one is moving houses.
Just by the dial of a short code, a user can turn on and off their meter, top up, and check the balance in real-time now one can even document reports.
The power firm is able to dictate the intervals at which power usage information is recorded online.
Mr Mbetsa hopes utility companies will have less spacing for accurate data reading and interpretation.
With the comfort of managing your electricity needs within your phone, Mr Mbetsa says one is enabled to check their balance as well as monitor appliances that seem to be consuming a lot of power from any location.
persons can also turn on and off devices plugged in power remotely and an added merit of enabled sharing of tokens with other users.
A big solution.
Smart meter
“The smart meter seeks to help power companies to know the voltage in every phase they cover in real-time. This is also practical in case of a power surge, blackout, and frequency fluctuations in an area,” he said.
About four years ago, Mr Mbetsa, 30, was on a trip when tokens ran out at home, plunging his compound into darkness. He bought tokens, but they could not be manually loaded because he had locked his house.
“It hit me. Why couldn’t I just buy the tokens and have them loaded without physically accessing the meter?” he posed.
Hereby one of the biggest challenges was ensuring the meter conforms to all the set international standards.
“The goal of all innovations is to help people acquire smart devices at an affordable price,” he added. A senior official at Kenya Power described the smart meter as a game-changer.
Mr. Mbetsa having developed his passion for technology at a young age has now broadened his reach to even offering employment to the young who suffer unemployment.
In high school, his favorite subjects were mathematics, physics, and chemistry as he felt they were compatible with his goals. After school, he joined Kenya Polytechnic but was only in class for three months before he dropped out.
He added, “Life was not easy when I was growing up, so I used to keep myself busy.”
Mr. Mbetsa believes that passion overpowers academic papers.
In conclusion, Mr. Mbetsa says that even without academic qualifications the team he works with has competence enough to work on building prototypes and manufacturing smart device products.
