Stadtwerke Essen has agreed with IoT software company Digimondo to acquire the LoRaWAN network operated in the city. It was built in 2017 by Digimondo, one of the IoT pioneers in Germany, and was one of the first metropolitan infrastructure roll-out of its kind.
Stadtwerke Essen will install the LoRaWAN hardware, or gateways, at various locations in the inner city area and will continue to use Digimondo's proven software to run the network.
"With the LoRaWAN network, we at Stadtwerke Essen want to further improve our own efficiency and make an important contribution to 'Connected.Essen', the smart city approach for our city," says Lars Martin Klieve, CEO of Stadtwerke Essen, explaining the rollout.
However, this is not to be the end of the story. "We are starting with internal pilot applications and have our sights firmly set on the demand-oriented expansion of the infrastructure and additional possible services," adds Tobias Grau, Head of Finance at Stadtwerke Essen and largely responsible for the digitalization efforts. Digimondo supports Stadtwerke Essen in these projects with its IoT software solutions - niota and firefly.
The existing LoRaWAN locations are to be expanded to include properties owned by Stadtwerke Essen and other partners. The head office, centrally located in Essen, will be one of the prime locations for a LoRa gateway.
"We are very pleased to have won another German public utility company as a partner, Stadtwerke Essen, who can take over and use our established network. With our experience from various IoT projects, we will support Stadtwerke Essen in pilot projects and the expansion of the LoRaWAN business in Essen," said DIGIMONDO CEO Christopher Rath.
Stadtwerke Essen already has initial LoRaWAN application experience in the field of metering and counting. In a field test, for example, several gas and water meters were equipped with LoRaWAN radio modules.
