Norway's Soolo Builds Tank Monitoring Platform, Cutting Transport Demand by Up to 50%

en.Wedoany.com Reported - Norwegian technology company Soolo has built a tank monitoring platform based on NB-IoT and LTE-M networks from IoT connectivity provider Com4, for applications such as fuel distribution, machinery rental, and railway operations. Three real-world cases—fuel distributor Knapphus Energi, machinery rental company UCO, and Norwegian national railway operator Bane NOR—show that demand-driven planning has reduced transport demand by up to 50% and significantly cut the number of emergency dispatches.

Asset distribution in the energy and utilities sector is becoming increasingly decentralized, from smart meters and grid sensors to power plants, energy storage systems, and EV charging stations—all requiring data retrieval from locations never designed for easy access. Nordic countries lead the world in smart meter adoption, with Norway at 98% and Sweden at 95%. Whether system data ultimately reaches users often hinges not on the sensors themselves, but on the underlying connectivity.

Grid sensors sit inside substations with thick concrete walls, fuel and liquid storage tanks are located underground or in sealed containers, and field assets are spread across rural areas with poor mobile network coverage. Such devices typically generate only a few kilobytes of data per month, yet demand absolute reliability. This is precisely where dedicated IoT connectivity technologies like NB-IoT and LTE-M come into play: they can penetrate difficult environments, maintain stable connections underground and in enclosed spaces, and support battery-powered devices operating maintenance-free for years.

Com4 is an IoT connectivity provider founded in Oslo in 2011 and became part of the Wireless Logic Group in 2021. It offers managed SIM and eSIM connectivity across more than 190 countries and over 950 networks, supporting LTE-M, NB-IoT, 5G, and satellite connectivity, backed by a redundant mobile core network and centralized SIM management via the Polaris CMP platform. In the energy and utilities sector, its customers include smart meter manufacturers, grid operators, and infrastructure providers.

Soolo is a technology company headquartered in Stavanger, and its tank monitoring platform is built on Com4's connectivity to address common problems in fuel distribution. Without real-time visibility, tanker truck utilization can be as low as 50%, and a single empty-tank incident can result in fines and productivity losses of up to NOK 50,000.

The solution consists of battery-powered pressure sensors, wireless IoT devices with a design life of five to ten years, and a cloud dashboard providing real-time data and automated alerts. The devices operate on Com4's NB-IoT, LTE-M, and multi-IMSI connectivity to remain online in hard-to-reach locations such as inspection wells and sealed containers. Rein Anders Apeland, system architect and co-founder of Soolo, says the data volume transmitted by Soolo is very small, but it must be 100% reliable; sensors may be buried underground or placed inside containers, so robust coverage is essential.

Tangible results have been validated across multiple companies. Knapphus Energi has reduced unnecessary dispatches and mileage through demand-driven route planning; UCO has eliminated continuous manual fuel checks, with operations teams reporting they no longer need to worry about it; Bane NOR uses it to monitor lubricant and operating fluid levels in workshop facilities, detecting low levels before they halt production. In all three cases, demand-driven planning has reduced transport demand by up to 50% compared to before, shifting customers from reactive operations to predictable, data-driven planning.

A similar pattern is emerging across the broader energy and utilities sector. Smart meters, grid sensors, EV charging infrastructure, and distributed generation all rely on the same principle: the value lies not in the sensor itself, but in data being reliably delivered no matter where the asset is located.

Com4 plans to host a webinar on IoT connectivity for energy and utilities on September 3, 2026, which will present the Soolo case and discuss scaling IoT deployments across markets. Com4 states that it can provide consulting support for connectivity planning on related projects.