February 16, 2024
“TOYOKEIKI Multi Center”, a centralized monitoring center operated by TOYOKEIKI Co., Ltd. received 506 seismic shut-off reports due to 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake*.
(*The Noto Peninsula Earthquake was an inland crustal earthquake that occurred at 16:10 on January 1st, 2024, 16 km underground in the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. The magnitude was 7.6, making it a rarely large earthquake for an inland earthquake in Japan.)
At 16:10 on January 1st, the first seismic shut-off report from Wajima City was received at the Center in Matsumoto City, since then reports have been received one after another. 411 on January 1st and 95 on the 2nd, a total of 506 reports were received. By municipality, the reports from 60 municipalities were received, including 88 in Kanazawa City, 78 in Toyama City, 34 in Himi City, 23 in Takaoka City, and 19 in Nanao City and so on.
Our Multi Center also detected that it was a huge earthquake that affected a wide area of Noto Peninsula.
With IoT-R connected to a microcomputer embedded meter, if an earthquake of seismic intensity scale (JMA) 5 or higher is detected, the system shuts off the meter and alerts, only when the gas is in use.
The gas supply was automatically shut off in 506 households in this earthquake, proved that smart meters are extremely effective in preventing accidents.
One of the LPG retailers said, “Using the subsidy, we installed IoT-R to reduce the burden of meter reading. We finished the installation at the end of December 2023, and on January 1st, 2024, the earthquake hit the area. We were able to install IoT-R at a right time. And we were able to keep on meter reading even though the main roads in the area were closed.” We also received a comment such as “By installing IoT-R, we were able to see the LPG stock status at the households and accurately identify the users who really needed gas urgently.”
Smart meter (microcomputer embedded meter with IoT-R) can be of great help in emergencies.