Badger Meter App Monitors Water Use

App for monitoring real time home water use

Rich Meeusen of Badger Meter Inc. might well be the most outspoken chief executive in Wisconsin. But the 110-year-old manufacturer he runs, long known for making brass mechanical water meters as heavy as dumbbells, went through a phase of unusual secrecy last year.

It quietly negotiated the acquisition of a Silicon Valley start-up, Aquacue Inc., which had developed a smartphone app that allows homeowners to monitor their water use in real time — with hourly, weekly or monthly analysis of temperature and precipitation, and even warnings if water use spikes or a leak is detected.

At a time when drought and water shortages are ravaging much of the nation and the world, the metalworking company saw a chance to catapult itself further into the 21st century.

But Meeusen also meant to preserve any advantage he could, wanting time to integrate the Aquacue technology with Badger's newest generations of water sensors. Ahead of the acquisition announcement, Badger implored Aquacue to strip its web page of any specifics about its technology. The announcement itself was buried on Page 2 of a routine quarterly earnings statement, in three bland sentences that mentioned "an early-stage company without significant sales." It didn't mention that Aquacue was in the heart of Silicon Valley.

"We wanted to catch our competitors by surprise," Meeusen said.

At stake is an emerging technology race within the $500 billion-a-year global water engineering market.

"The Aquacue acquisition is a game-changer for Badger Meter," said Ryan Connors, an analyst who follows the water tech industry for Janney Montgomery Scott LLC in Philadelphia.

And at least for now, Connors and others say that Badger appears to be the first water meter maker with a smartphone app, an advantage that Meeusen said should open new opportunities in drought-stricken regions, as well as new export markets from Europe to the Middle East for a company that traditionally focused on familiar North American markets.

"Badger is all alone in this potentially significant product niche right now," Connors said. The closest comparable efforts involve other tech companies that put electrical utility data onto smartphones for consumers, Connors said.

The app will be deployed through local water utilities, which will show customers how to download it and how to make use of its diagnostics. This will be done through inserts in monthly bills, public service announcements and other outreach efforts.

"The app will be free because the water utility will want to encourage consumers to use it," Meeusen said.

Communities in California, the state with the most severe drought as well as home to Aquacue, are expected to be the earliest adopters. That will happen this year, he said.

"It's only a matter of time before our rivals all come out with similar things," Meeusen said.

"I'm sure they are all working on it," said Shahram Javey, a software engineer who left his job at Adobe Systems Inc. to found Aquacue.

Since late January, when Badger officially took the wraps off its Beacon metering analytics system, the company said initial signs have been encouraging. More than 200 U.S. water utilities have expressed interest in the system, and many of those have begun testing it, said John Fillinger, a Badger marketing executive. "Customers included very small rural systems to large city applications," Fillinger said.

"People will conserve if they have the data," Meeusen said.

The Beacon system, with apps that also run on tablets, laptops and personal computers, culminates a succession of new product rollouts from Badger.

Source: JSonline

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Taxonomy

• Monitors
• Smart Meters
• IT