Case Study: Bespoke Fuel Management Solution for Alan Dick Company in Africa
20/02/2017
Effective fuel management is essential to any organisation wanting
to successfully monitor their fuel levels and prevent fuel thefts occurring
especially in third world countries. When completed properly, it can make a
vitally important contribution to the profitability of such organisations. The
cost of fuel and its usage is a significant overhead for any commercial establishment.
Bell Flow Systems were approached by Telecomms specialist, Alan
Dick Company in Africa to provide a unique solution to a range of problems,
surrounding supply, delivery, remote reporting and security that they were facing.
There was currently no one single solution on the market to help them and so
they commissioned Bell Flow Systems to supply various integrated products and
services. The company successfully installed oil flow meters, remote telemetry
equipment, fuel management hardware and software plus accessories and
commissioning for this bespoke fuel monitoring project in Gabon, Africa.
Operating a network of mobile telephone communications masts
within the Congo which provides
vital Cell-phone infra-structure to widespread rural communities in this
third-world country, Alan Dick Company has been facing an ongoing struggle to
keep the masts’ diesel fuel based electricity supplies running. Fuel theft and generator fuel supply failure
have become increasing problems to the company in recent times, leading to
frequent network outages.
The client required a reliable monitoring system to remotely
provide information on the generator fuel levels at fourteen of their sites to
ensure fuel re-supply was accomplished at the correct intervals. They suggested
that these deliveries should be recorded using tamper resistant equipment as it
was suspected that the delivery drivers were not delivering all of the fuel
documented.
Bell Flow Systems successfully developed a lockable and
rugged enclosure based system, housing an accurate supply line Macnaught fuel
flow meter, an independently powered local volume display register for back-up
verification and the AquaLink II; an autonomously powered remote telemetry
device providing M2M data transfer over WiFi/GSM/GPRS to the head office.
Access is via a cloud based portal with monitoring, reporting and alarm based
functionality.
Another problem the client faced was frequent fuel theft, potentially
from current employees. The client required the facility at all of his sites to
dispense this stored fuel securely and accurately into containers by approved
users. Logging all transfers and recording this information locally as well as
reporting this information remotely to the head office. The current manual transfer
‘trust based’ system was open to abuse by corrupt or negligent staff so a new
secure solution was desperately needed.
A secure fuel management system was installed for each of the
sites featuring lockable cabinets, hard wired fuel and data lines, remote
telemetry over GSM/GPRS and independent user access logging via RFID key fobs
controlled by the system administrator. The Gespasa MINI 88K fuel management
system was an ideal solution for this particular application, providing simple
installation and operation and rugged stainless steel construction. The use of
these user allocated key fobs, unique to each user has prevented unwanted fuel
dispensing by unauthorised individuals.
Bell Flow Systems offer a wide range of products and
solutions suitable for fuel handling applications. For more information please
contact us on sales@bellflowsystems.co.uk
or 0800 027 7786.
About Bell Flow Systems:
Bell Flow Systems was established in 1997 with the emphasis being firmly placed on the provision of flow measurement solutions to industry. Since that time, Bell Flow Systems and it's sister company Cortex Displays Ltd have adapted and grown to meet new demands and challenges in an ever changing market place. We now build systems, manufacture display instrumentation and supply a range of products to the renewables market and the environmental market.