The benefits of the interoperability of Tekla’s solutions have become clear to Tekniska Verken i Linköping AB, a regional energy, water and utilities supplier in Linköping, Sweden, as their Water Supply and Sewage Engineer Mattias Palo has found new ways to utilize Linköping’s Tekla Solution for water utilities through data integration. The result has been more accurate billing, which has increased revenue, and concrete cost savings.
“With a consultation fee of SEK 800 (about EUR 90) per hour and the time saving of two months, we save approximately SEK 250,000 (about EUR 27,500) every year.”
Accurate customer billing
The first notion was that not all of Linköping’s storm water drainage customers were paying for the service they received. Previously, the relevant information regarding storm water drainage in different consumer points was dispersed in many different databases, which made controlling the invoicing difficult.
With Tekla’s solution, it was possible to combine information from the various databases and analyze which consumer points were not paying for their storm water drainage service. The solution could also be used in mapping customer points with specific attributes, such as basements, which are not paying for their services. The data could then be compared with Linköping’s invoicing records, and those customers not paying could be billed.
New interfaces enabled
In a second breakthrough, Mattias Palo was able to integrate Linköping’s Tekla Solution for water utilities with surface data from an external partner. Linköping now uses Tekla’s solution also in surface area calculations regarding storm water drainage. The new data not only speeds up work, but also brings cost savings.
“By marking which consumer points are drained to a storm water manhole, one can use Tekla Solution to calculate how large a property area is assigned to each manhole. Even street surfaces can be handled in the system. As an end result, one gets a file with all the surfaces that are assigned to individual storm water manhole,” explains Jörgen Lönnbring, Network Manager at Division Water of Tekniska Verken i Linköping, and he continues: “A picture can also be taken showing the total area of a property, including how much of it is hard surface in both square meters and as a percentage of the total area.”
Better control of costs and time
With more accurate billing for storm water drainage services, Tekniska Verken i Linköping estimates to gain approximately SEK 200,000 (about EUR 22,000) more per year. Automatic property surface mapping saves around two months worth of labor yearly, which translates into concrete savings in costs. “With a consultation fee of SEK 800 (about EUR 90) per hour and the time saving of two months, we save approximately SEK 250,000 (about EUR 27,500) every year,” says Lönnbring.