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While over half of the world’s population still cook over open fires, there is only an estimated 10 million Nigerians who have access to LPG cylinder cooking. And since many more Nigerians have been switching to cooking gas – otherwise known as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) – instances, where the gas in the cylinders exhaust on a Sunday morning when they could not access a refill, has become commonplace. This is one major challenging section in energy management that Nupe Energy is looking to solve with Smart meters using Internet of Things (IoT) technology. Nupe Energy is a renewable energy offshoot of the Nupe Project – a company that designs and develops innovative hardware products in Africa. The smart meter device uses a combination of hardware and software to make LPG available for households through a smart metering system. Nupe Energy’s LPG cylinder smart meter intelligently controls gas flow to the cooker, enables homeowners to monitor cylinder level remotely and also facilitates quick gas purchase from the nearest retailer whenever the gas is exhausted.
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Nupe Energy is able to manage the Smart metering device (NUGAS) with different cellular networks with the capability to operate on any of 2G/GSM/GPRS bands to either display LPG volume or execute a refilled gas cylinder to be delivered via the clouds. Customers who use the smart meter are able to prepay and postpay for gas using a mobile wallet or USSD via the NUPAY app. Meanwhile, affordability of the smart meter is one area Nupe Energy has to tackle. The smart meter costs $50 at the moment. However, Funfere Koroye, Nupe Energy’s Head of Product, said that the cost of the smart meter is not paid at once by the customer as it can be spread over a long period of time through their subscription. To also reduce the barrier of entry of using LPG gas cylinders for cooking, the Nigerian government put in place some policies to encourage local production of LPG cylinders. The government also had to remove the value-added tax (VAT) imposed on LPG cylinders and instead instituted a 25%-30% Import duty waiver on LPG equipment and appliances. For a country where the adoption of cooking gas is still low for homeowners, restaurants and other related uses, Nupe Energy appears ready to usher in the many more millions of potential users yet to adopt LPG gas and abandon firewood, charcoal and kerosene cooking solutions. Featured Image Source: Techpoint Africa
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