Intelligent Oracle Smart Grid Water Flow Meter Based on AI

The Oracle Smart Grid Water Flow Meter (OWM) is a smart meter device for monitoring water consumption and a sustainability solution by using artificial intelligence.

Water scarcity affects more than 40 percent of people worldwide. Although 2.1 billion people have obtained access to improved water sanitation since 1990, drinking water supplies are dwindling across the globe.

Worldwide, one in three people does not have access to safe drinking water, two out of five people do not have a basic hand-washing facility with soap and water, and more than 673 million people still practice open defecation.

By 2050, it is projected that at least one in four people will suffer recurring water shortages. Safe and affordable drinking water for all by 2030 requires investment in inadequate infrastructure, provision of sanitation facilities, and the protection and restoration of essential water-related ecosystems.

Egypt has only 20 cubic meters per person of internal renewable freshwater resources, and as a result, the country relies heavily on the Nile River for its main source of water. The River Nile is the backbone of Egypt’s industrial and agricultural sectors and is the primary source of drinking water for the population.

Rising populations and rapid economic development in the countries of the Nile Basin, pollution and environmental degradation are decreasing water availability in the country. 

Egypt is facing an annual water deficit of around 7 billion cubic meters. In fact, the United Nations is already warning that Egypt could run out of water by the year 2025, 29.7% is wasted water in Egypt due to outdated pipes and spraying streets.

Egypt’s population is mushrooming at an alarming rate and has increased by 41 percent since the early 1990s. Recent reports by the government suggest that around 4,700 newborns are added to the population every week, and future projections say that the population will grow from its current total of 92 million to 110 million by the year 2025.

Fig 1: River Nile is commonly used for dumping household trash

Fig 2: Need, want, and demand.

The Oracle Smart Grid Water Flow Meter (OWM) is a smart meter device for monitoring water consumption and a sustainability solution that pays for itself through water savings. It can detect and stop leaks at the source using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). It alerts you when water is leaking and automatically shuts it off or by a press of a button through a mobile application. The wireless control and intelligent real-time monitoring can be accessed through a web/mobile application. Provides user consumption analytics by collecting data and then it can predict future consumption using AI and ML. Finally, the device provides water components analysis for purity detection and approval.

Fig 3: OWM High-Level Overview.

Egypt is facing an annual water deficit of around 7 billion cubic meters. In fact, the United Nations is already warning that Egypt could run out of water by the year 2025, 29.7% is wasted water in Egypt due to outdated pipes and spraying streets.

Egypt’s population is mushrooming at an alarming rate and has increased by 41 percent since the early 1990s. Recent reports by the government suggest that around 4,700 newborns are added to the population every week, and future projections say that the population will grow from its current total of 92 million to 110 million by the year 2025. Nowadays, Egypt’s irrigation network draws almost entirely from the Aswan High Dam, which regulates more than 18,000 miles of canals and sub-canals that push out into the country’s farmlands adjacent to the river. This system is highly inefficient, losing as much as 3 billion cubic meters of Nile water per year through evaporation, and could be detrimental by not only intensifying water and water stress but also creating unemployment.


The main objective is to target as a start are mainly the compounds, especially the green ones that support SDGs and climate change problems. Our target is to penetrate 15% of these B2B segments in the first year and this would save an estimated 20% of wasted water and save 25% cost of the bills of the normal meters.

The management team is led by Chief Executive Officer Noor El-Deen Magdy who founded the company in 2022 after working as Software Engineer at Iskraemeco Company. He received his BSc in Computer Engineering from the University of Helwan in 2022.

The Business Analyst is Moutaz Bellah Hosny.

The Embedded Systems/Linux Engineer is Asmaa Latif.

The Product Manager is Rawan Mahmoud.

All of the team were in the Youth Leaders Foundation (YLF) which is an NGO for empowering youth in Egypt and all of us were in multiple other student activities across different universities in Cairo, Helwan, and Al-Azhar universities. Also, we have participated in COP 27 with our project.

Fig 4: OWM at COP27.

Research Design Formulation (Test Survey)

The research survey we have made focused on two major aspects from the user and customer perspectives which are:

• Traditional Water Metering-Related Questions

• This is to make sure that the customer is not satisfied with the current traditional solution and that he/she thinks about the problems he is having.

1. Do you still have the electronic/mechanical type of meters installed at your home?

2. To what extent are/were you satisfied with your electronic/mechanical procedure of working and monitoring?

3. Are you satisfied with the payment method of these traditional meters and can track your bills and water consumption in general?

4. Are you affected by unexpected expensive water bills with a large amount of usage you didn’t know about?

5. Can you easily calculate the water usage details in short periods of time?

6. Do you prefer prepaid or postpaid payment for your water bills?

7. Have you been affected anytime by water tampering or misuse?

8. Did you think or plan to upgrade to the new smart meters technology?

• Smart Metering Related Questions

• This section questions focus on the smart metering technology and how the user interacts with it.

1. Are you familiar with water smart meters?

2. Do you have a smart meter at your house?

3. Do you think that water smart meters are better than electronic/mechanical meters?

4. Would you like to manage your water profile online through a Web/Mobile app?

5. Would you like to view your daily consumption of water?

6. Which method of payment do you prefer?

7. Would you like to inspect and view your old water bills for analysis?

• The Main Solution Features Hypothesis Questions

• Now the customer evaluates if he really wants the main upgraded features of our product and feels that is a good thing to have this type of feature.

1. Do you prefer to add your water profile to a specific cluster of users according to your consumption by using AI for making appropriate tariff calculations?

2. Would you like to know if someone is tampering with or misusing the water in your building?

3. Would you like to have the ability to forecast/predict how much your next bill will be?

4. Would you prefer that the meter cuts the water flow automatically when it detects a potential leakage?

5. Is it a good idea for you to have the ability to cut the flow of water in your house instantly in real-time?

6. Do you think it would differ if you get notifications or recommendations for your meter about decreasing your water consumption?

7. Are you willing to pay extra money for changing to the smart meter technology with the previously mentioned features?

Field Work/Data Collection (Lunch Survey)

The research survey has been published across a random sample of our surrounding community of nearly 60 participants. It was shared on Facebook and some WhatsApp groups to pick a sample of normal and traditional customers who would have the potential to buy and test our product.  

Data Preparation and Analysis (Structure Data)

Now we would show the results of the survey across a sample of the following:

• Age: 20 - 30 Years Old

• Gender: 55% Males, 45% Females

• Buying Frequency and Affordability: Would buy this solution for an average of 5000 - 6000 EGP. 

The following graphs are the main important questions for answering our business problem:

Fig 5: OWM Survey Results 1.

Fig 6: OWM Survey Results 2.

Fig 7: OWM Survey Results 3.

Fig 8: OWM Survey Results 4.

Report Preparation and Presentation (Answer Business Problem) 

After reviewing the conducted results of our survey, we have concluded that the users are willing to to switch for smart metering technology to analyze and monitor their consumption to the level of daily checking.

Also, the interaction through a mobile/web app is really engaging and is a huge relief for tracking consumption overall and ensuring an easy payment process. 

Finally applying the idea of leakage detection is the most welcomed feature for being able to avoid wasted water and bills before they even happen and the free option of cutting the flow instantly at any time for debugging and checking for errors in the house water pumps and taps. In the end, it is seen that the customers are willing to pay and change to the smart meter technology by a 73.7% which is a great indicator of the success of the survey and answering our business problem feasibility.

• As mentioned before that all of the competitors have electronic and smart water meter solutions being developed but lack the neo-IoT technologies and the state-of-the-art AI/ML technologies. In Fig. 16 we can see our five main competitive features.

• The OWM's main strategy is it targets a very specific segment of green compounds that support SDGs and climate change problems for the conservation of the main infrastructure resources such as water resources. Also, we have made some customers and connections as of now from our participation in COP27, and they want a number of our meters but we lack the required fund for large-scale production.

Fig 1: OWM Competitive Features.

• In Fig. 2 the growth plan and the roadmap of the OWM are illustrated for the next two years with the decided milestones:

Fig 2: OWM Roadmap.

The OWM is an IoT hardware system that uses embedded Linux for applying the on-edge machine learning leakage detection and is connected to the OWM cloud system for user interaction and notifying through the OWM mobile and web applications that use flutter technology and react with laravel technology respectively.

Our target is to serve 420 customers in the next year as a start and expected to grow every year.

• In Fig. 2 the growth plan and the roadmap of the OWM are illustrated for the next two years with the decided milestones:

Fig 2: OWM Roadmap.

• Getting to know the latest state-of-the-art technologies used and solved by intensive research.
• Hardware compatibility and the availability of the required sensor.
• A lot of bugs in the communication between the embedded system built and the web/mobile application, and a lot of debugging was done to establish stable communication and sending of data.
• Managing the overall progress and merging our work.

This project is based upon work supported by:

1. Iskraemeco Company
2. Pixels Egypt
3. Innovation Product Development Support Center (IPDSC)
   
4. Wireless Research Lab (WRL)

Fig 1: OWM's Business Model Canvas

Fig 2: OWM's Business Model Canvas