Aton’s solutions for the LPG market

In the webinar “The New Challenges of the LPG Market“, we shared our experience in the LPG market and presented what we see as the answers to the current needs of the industry.

The LPG market 

In the article “How to respond to the needs of the LPG market?” we told the story of Roberto, an end user, and Lucia, who works at an LPG distribution company, highlighting their needs and how dedicated applications can support both the end user and the company supplying this precious gas. The use of the term ‘precious’ is not accidental, especially in relation to the period we are currently living, characterised by strong concerns about Europe’s energy supply.

LPG is a safe and practical energy source with a low ecological impact. In fact, the low emissions of particulate matter and other pollutants released when it burns make it one of the cleanest energy sources*. For this reason, it is more important than ever to take all measures to optimise the use and distribution of this resource.

Unlike methane, LPG requires ad-hoc distribution logistics solutions to reach our end user, Roberto. To make this process efficient, Aton offers global telemetry solutions, GPS trackers and supports Lucia’s distribution company with a multilingual support service.

Tank monitoring and control 

Through .onMeter, our Gathering Platfom for the monitoring and remote control of LPG tanks, Lucia, of the distribution company is able to perform:

• the control of the LPG tank inventory
• monitoring of daily consumption and cost management
• verification of tank diagnostic data
• the management of work orders for the installation or maintenance of telemetry devices at plants

Hardware independence 

.onMeter is hardware independent, i.e. it can support any telemetry device (level gauges or smart meters) using the following transmission technologies: SMS and GSM (legacy), or SigFox, LTE Cat-M1, NB-IoT and micro satellites.

Thanks to this, Lucia is able to view the entire installed base in a single portal, without having to switch from one portal to another based on the manufacturer or generation of the device. The aggregation of the collected data will also be homogeneous and easy to extract and consult.

The information collected will make it possible to:

• draw up consumption forecasts
• prevent or report any faults or tampering
• remotely manage the smart meter valve
• know the residual gas level in the tank updated daily

Cloud applications 

Lucia consults .onMeter directly from the web as it is a 100% Cloud platform. However, her fellow installers have a mobile application (Android and iOS) with which they can also independently carry out these checks directly in the field, without cumbersome equipment or the need to call in. This also applies to telemetry device installations on a plant: the association between the remote control device, tank and user is done directly from the application.

Geolocation 

Our systems management platform also offers Lucia a module in which LPG delivery vehicles can be geolocalised, with which delivery routes can be optimised and the exact GPS position recorded at each significant event.

These are some of the most significant aspects of Aton’s solutions for the LPG market, but Lucia could further optimise its logistics management processes with its sales and workforce management solutions:

*Source: Adnkronos