A Conceptual Framework for the Adoption of Smart Water Meters in Kenya – Case of Kiambu Water and Sewage Company

Abstract

Information Communication and Technology (ICT) has revolutionized the way we undertake our day to day activities with tasks such as communication, tasks automation, robotics and aviation. This has led to the world’s transformation to a global village. With the advancement of embedded systems since its conception in the 1960s, Integrated circuits (ICs) have greatly influenced computing and the subsequent application in day to day lives. Computing has found means to make far-reaching changes in day to day human operations. The concept of Internet of Things (IOT) largely benefits from the Embedded systems, as integration of hardware sensors, controlling software, analytics dashboards and communication networks form end-to-end Network of Networks. The mode of water meter reading in operation in Kiambu Water and Sewerage Company Limited heavily borrows from the traditional manual meter reading, involving deployment of agents in the field to collect readings from consumer meters. This study focused on the existing water meter reading processes in Kiambu Water and Sewerage Company Limited, referred to as Traditional manual water reading, with an aim of unearthing the challenges faced by vendors and consumers. The output of this was used to develop and validate an automated meter reading adoption model for Kiambu Water and Sewerage Company Limited. The study used a descriptive research design. The focus was to understand the impact of introduction of smart meters, the advantages, disadvantages, success and failure and create an adoption model for Automated Meter Reading. The population in focus was the field agents who are tasked with collecting meter readings from the traditional meters, staff and the water service provider in charge of billing and those in charge of billing dispute resolution as well as the consumers. The sampling method was random sampling. The process of data collection was done using questionnaires. The data obtained was analyzed using SPSS and SPSS AMOS and later documented in statistical graphs, pie charts and tables. The study found that system importance had a significant influence on adoption of smart meters (B = .440, p = .000). The same was found for environmental care (B = .112, p = .000), performance expectancy (B = .314, p = .000) and social influence (B = .231, p = .000). The study also found that economic evaluation (B = .146, p = .000), system quality (B = .733, p = .000), trialability (B = .248, p = .000) and financial freedom (B = .639, p = .000) had a significant influence on adoption of smart meters. A positive and significant relationship was ado found for security concerns (B = .138, p = .000), impact evaluation (B = .191, p = .000), process evaluation (B = .182, p = .000), brand trust (B = .334, p = .000) and ease and accuracy of use (B = .432, p = .000) with the adoption of smart meters. The study concluded that there were challenges in water reading processes in Kiambu County. These challenges included over billing, leakage of revenue, environmental degradation, lack of common standards, system, application and network vulnerabilities, high operational expenditure, increased customer dissatisfaction and aging infrastructure. This study recommends that the County should prioritize adoption of smart meters, in order to reduce the challenges such as leakage of revenue, high expenditure and customer dissatisfaction. This can be done through widespread installations of smart meters, as well as sensitization programmes for the residents to adopt them.