ADD GRUP: Making the world smarter in terms of water and energy usage

The global perspective on sustainability has to shift. It’s no secret that certain human actions are causing the ecosystem to undergo unexpected, possibly adverse changes because of the generation of harmful pollutants and overconsumption of energy. Energy is vital, but its production has a negative impact on the environment; therefore, controlling usage is essential for utilities and general people. Smart meters are one of the noteworthy inventions that could spearhead the consumption control revolution.

Since its introduction in the 1970s, smart meters have proven to be an essential instrument for tracking and managing the consumption of energy. Smart meters are an upgrade over the AMR systems that merely measured consumption as they can measure site-specific data, such as surge voltages, to identify issues with power quality. These perks make it a crucial breakthrough for water utilities, hotels, power networks, and everyday consumers. 

As smart meters create waves in the electricity industry, numerous companies that have marketed their application have gained fame. One of the top suppliers of cutting-edge smart meters is ADD Grup. Headquartered in Moldova, the company has been offering customized smart meters for almost three decades. Business Talk Magazine spoke with Elena Turanskaya, CEO of ADD Grup, recently to learn more about the company’s mission to help people become smart with water and electricity consumption and what sets it apart as a market leader for smart meters.

Setting the Stage for a Visionary Idea

Part I

Following Moldova’s independence in 1991, the country’s new economy was calling people to come up with innovative ideas that led to lucrative business endeavors. This gave Alexei Lazarev, a student of theoretical physics to develop a local phone billing system, thus laying the foundation of ADD Grup. This didn’t just bring about a cost-effective upgrade for analog phones, but also made it possible to get contracts for the invoicing of millions of phone users in Moldova and the CIS. During this time, Smart metering technologies began to gain traction. This inspired Mr. Lazarev to try his hand at a different vector. The company began developing ADDAX IMS, an AMR system based on PLC communications. But for this new venture to flourish, it was necessary to have people of a new generation on board with a purview beyond the borders. The core team essentially comprised of technicians with a rich background in military electronics.

Part II 

In 1998, Elena joined the company as an assistant marketing manager. While the emergence of a new economy brought up exciting opportunities, Moldova in the 90s was short-sighted. Yet Elena was adamant about breaking through the clutter and winning people over. She was still a student, lacking any expertise or experience, but had a strong ambition to study and develop new concepts with a clear vision. She rose through the ranks of the company’s marketing division by perseverance and dedication. This allowed her to focus more on advancing smart meter development and expanding into new regions. As she explored overseas markets, Elena found a rising demand for smart meters, both at home and abroad. Upon this realization, she worked harder to help the company become a prominent participant on the international stage and continuously break new ground.

Part III

Elena’s relentless efforts paid off as she climbed the corporate ranks, eventually assuming control of the production and financial departments. Her capacity for effective process organization and leadership allowed her to form alliances with leading energy suppliers around the world. She eventually rose to the position of CEO, and helped the company venture into AMI Solutions for energy and resources consumption. Today, ADD Grup has clients throughout the world, having provided over 8 million smart meters to more than 35 nations in Latin America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Central and South-Eastern Asia, and Africa. Her leadership has driven the company to explore new horizons while ensuring top-notch quality in products and services. 

Company at a glance

ADD Grup’s pursuit to be a reliable supplier has translated into crafting a portfolio of innovative products characterized by excellent condition, complying with global standards, and exceeding customers’ expectations. From the very beginning, the company’s focus has been on being at the frontier of its field. Elena explains, “While our competitors were working on AMR solutions (where meter data is collected once a month), we created full-fledged AMI solutions with two-way communication and the ability to remotely disconnect consumers for non-payment or electricity theft.” Today, their portfolio includes the ADDAX electricity meter, the ADDRA water meter with a control valve, as well as the innovative service for energy resource submetering, ADDERRA. While each of its offerings comply to strict standards, they are customized for specific tasks not limited to data monitoring but also water consumption management. 

As one of the early players in smart metering technology, ADD Grup has pioneered many developments! The company was the first in Europe to implement meters with LTE Modems and the first in the world to launch a hybrid-based solution. All of these hold true for the sub-metering market for electricity and water as well. ADD Grup is the only supplier in the market providing sub-metering with an integrated payment system. The ease of accessibility significantly contributes to client satisfaction, further giving it an edge in the market.

ADD Grup also operates a complete production cycle for developing and manufacturing smart meters. Its manufacturing facilities are equipped to monitor all stages of production, from inspection of components and surface mounting of elements on the board to testing of products under the strict control of its specialities. Having a keen eye on every stage ensures an impeccable quality with an average defect rate of no more than 0.1% a year. It also drives them to focus on things that really matters. It entered the water consumption market, as the resource is facing serious challenges due to consumption mismanagement. ADD Grup always focuses on rational resource consumption, which allows them to pioneer innovations over its rivals.  

A unique take on pioneering innovations

There is a saying, “Competition forces us to bring out and do the best”. With ADD Grup, there is no exception. While it works in specific segments of smart metering, its market is still competitive. With standardized processes and uniform requirements becoming the norm, one can no longer rely on patented innovations. The primary focus is on interoperability; as such, the company always makes room for unique ideas and innovations that can optimize performance while staying abreast of the market. As an example, the ADDAX electrical solution guarantees the maximum industry-best communication success rate of 99%.

Ensuring a balance between adaptability and competitiveness allows it to serve many leading utility companies around the world. Its principal clients include Utility giants like CEZ (Romania), Iberdrola (Spain and Brazil), EVN (Bulgaria and North Macedonia), and many more. Even though being in different geographies requires distinct resources to cater their needs, ADD Grup emphasizes the needs of the end consumers of water and electricity to realize its clients’ needs. For example, ADD Grup caters to guesthouses and three-star hotels. These clients deal with their tenants’ unreasonable resource utilization daily. ADD Grup helps them with the rationalization of usage and the separation of utility bills from the rental fee.

While working on pioneering innovations, the company has formed many alliances as well. Within the markets of Europe, India, and Latin America, utility companies have a tendency to force equipment makers to collaborate with other solution providers, such as communication integrators, through their interoperability requirements. It takes cooperation to achieve interoperability under such circumstances. In addition, the exceptional quality of products has prompted many rivals of ADD Grup to secure the technology’s rights and produce products in their locality, transforming rivalry into contractual cooperation.

What Sparks Their Zeal for Innovations

“The most important thing in our work is to constantly acquire new knowledge and skills and know how to use them correctly,” asserts the CEO. ADD Grup has always prioritized leveraging its experience to benchmark solutions. Elena adds that being smaller in proportion to their competitors further forced them to be more flexible and responsive to cater the needs of a growing market. It’s also essential to remember that ADD Grup has a deeper technical dialogue with clients and partners. It never imposes its solutions on clients rather ensures flexibility to improve the products to resolve clients’ challenges.

These efforts speak a lot about the company’s continual internal R&D. In fact, it has a separate R&D division called ADD-Technology. This team consists of specialists like programmers, developers, testers constantly engaged in design and development of innovative products. Their activities significantly contribute towards making the company lead at the forefront of its industry. The team also experiments with emerging technologies, but their primary emphasis lies in creating innovative and bespoke products.

Not Deterred by Persistent Conflicts

While working around the clock to be a reckoning name for smart metering solutions, ADD Grup have dealt with numerous challenges that tested it at every level. Shedding further light on this, Elena says, “We insourced the critical production processes like STM, THT, Plastic Injection in 2009, but before that we were outsourcing the plastic housings for meters to third-party suppliers in China. To our disappointment, the housings were defective and unacceptable.” She continues, “As we began to make these independently, we had to import several high-quality injection molding machines and invested resources and time to fine-tune the equipment and train employees.” Even though it was challenging, the investments were recovered entirely, and there haven’t been any complaints since. Likewise, they brought Surface Mount Technology (SMT) production in-house, which were also outsourced to other nations and incurred poor results.

Tackling the pandemic was an uphill battle that tested ADD Grup’s might. Like every electronics company in the world, ADD Grup also faced an acute shortage of microchips. But, the holistic relationships with clients allowed it to have the necessary components on board. Another major challenge that ADD Grup is still dealing with is the Russia-Ukraine war. Elena claims that they lost two significant markets and that their Western allies were less eager to work with them, make orders, give credit, and do a lot of other things because of how close the conflict was to their borders. It also suffered greatly from the Port of Odessa’s isolation from the nation’s logistical pathways.

Despite constantly battling with these challenges, ADD Grup has shown sheer will and resolve to stay committed on its path. Its innate flexibility and ability to adapt to new scenarios helps it carve alternative supply channels and uphold the trust of its partners. 

A Committed Team: A Thriving Company

Of all the focus and commitment ADD Grup has towards its stakeholders, nothing compares to the team it has on board. As Elena says, “Our employees are the cornerstone of our image.” From conception to completion, these individuals utilize their knowledge and skills to create solutions that make the company a force to reckon with. The fact that many of their employees have been working with them for over a decade is indicative of their open and cordial relationships.  

ADD Grup has an internal code of ethics that emphasizes professionalism, mutual respect and openness for communication. This ensures holistic relationship across the echelons and an atmosphere that appreciates and encourages taking initiative. It also helps in ensuring a creative approach remains fundamental in their activities. The company also keeps note of the team’s recreation needs. ADD Grup recently celebrated its 32^nd Anniversary pompously. “We as a team not only work hard but also know how to have fun,” claims Elena happily.

Always Eyeing on Eventful Opportunities

ADD Grup’s main objective has been to benefit society throughout its extensive journey. And this objective has brought it a lot of honors. A novel prospect for the enterprise is the collaboration between ADD Grup and the Government of the Republic of Moldova. This came about because of the government approving a state energy efficiency plan, in which ADD Grup is intimately participating. The first batch of smart electricity meters will be a part of this pilot project that the company and the government initiated last year.

The company understands the role of energy and its impact on the environment, which is why it is constantly working on addressing emerging challenges. One of the major challenges it seeks to resolve is the over-consumption of water by tourists. According to new European guidelines, Spain and Portugal must reduce water consumption by 15%, particularly in hotels and rental properties. In tourism facilities, filling pools during dry spells will be prohibited. Elena believes her company can help in rationalizing the natural resource. “Hotels and landlords can use our ADDERRA technical solution to combat water and electricity over-consumption,” she says. Hotels and rental accommodations can exclude the water and electricity consumption charges and install the water and electricity meters. This will help both parties with saving money. 

ADD Grup is also working on creating a thriving market for its integrated sub-metering platform ADDERRA. The technology has a huge potential, and with collaboration from online rental accommodation platforms, it could reach millions of visitors who could help promote the idea of rational consumption. 

In the end, the company is on a mission to rationalize water and electricity consumption, so it is constantly seeking to build new and robust relationships with power grids, water utilities, landlords, hotels, or ordinary consumers.

A Note for every manufacturer

“To be successful, it is not enough to concentrate exclusively on product development and manufacturing. It is far more crucial to build two-way relationships with those from other markets and nations, learn about their challenges and hurdles, and create solutions that can effectively deal with these issues.”

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