For over 10 years now, su-re.co has been working to bridge the gap between evidence-based research and practices geared towards climate change mitigation and adaptation in different regions of Indonesia. Since 2016, su-re.co has been working with local farmers in Bali to promote the use of biogas and bio-slurry. If bio-slurry adds value to local cocoa and coffee crops, allowing farmers to market their organic farming produce to international buyers, biogas brings the additional benefit of being a clean source of energy for cooking.
Bianca has been in close contact with these farmers since 2022, when – as an Engineering Officer and a recent Biology graduate (BSc, Institut Teknologi Bandung) – she started leading on the many activities by su-re.co in Bali, from research to business development, from digester optimisation to community engagement. So far, Bianca and her team have been implementing 130 digesters in Bali as well as across several other Indonesian islands – a huge fleet for her and her team to manage with non-digital methods. That is where the idea and necessity of a smart biogas meter came from.
“Before finding Smart Biogas, we tried out a few different meters. Some were bulky, others did not come with an Internet connection. It was so much easier, so much nicer when we eventually found Smart Biogas.“
Bianca, Engineering Officer, su-re.co
“The first thing we did was to measure accuracy”, Bianca recalls the test they performed with Smart Biogas, to compare its performance against other products they had previously used. Upon running scientific experiments, the su-re.co team found that Smart Biogas exhibited a very low margin of error when displaying gas consumption. Inclusive Energy’s technology was, in other words, much more accurate than the meters they had tried before, and the team proceeded to buy a first batch of Smart Biogas for the monitoring of 40 digesters. Today, Bianca and her team check Smart Biogas on a daily basis. She finds that its transparency and accuracy has greatly simplified her communication with the farmers, making her more incisive and credible.
Bianca notes that there have been some problems along the way. For example, at the beginning – having not purchased the global SIM card – they faced connectivity issues. Having ordered an earlier version of the product, Bianca also found there to be some discrepancies in the values returned for specific situations or at specific times of the day – discrepancies which were reported and corrected by Inclusive Energy through firmware updates. Recently, su-re.co team has upgraded to Inclusive Energy’s latest hardware version, which includes an LCD screen for farmers to check their consumption in real time, even if not equipped with a smartphone. This product was found by Bianca and her team to be more user-friendly and working better than the previous versions.
“Iteration after iteration, Smart Biogas has become more user-friendly, giving farmers the possibility to check the data directly on site. Overall, we appreciate how much the product has improved since we first trialled it.”
“In that way, Inclusive Energy and su-re.co share the same philosophy and product ethics: constant improvement, openness to feedback, and being unafraid of change.” Bianca is satisfied with the way her suggestions and complaints were dealt with by Inclusive Energy’s customer care team. “Even our [su-re.co] biogas system is not perfect, but we strive to work closely with farmers and other partners and make it better, according to user experience and evidence-based research. I found the same dynamic going on at Inclusive Energy, and that made the interaction so much easier.”
Find out more about su-re.co here: https://www.su-re.co/