Changi East Coastal Dorm streamlines utility management with a customisable platform

The Opportunity

At a dormitory with 1,040 rooms, even small differences between the utilities collected and the electricity and water actually consumed can become a significant operational concern. This was the challenge facing Changi East Coastal Dorm, where the operator had limited visibility into consumption at individual room level and therefore limited ability to manage excessive usage.

Without room-level data, the team had to rely largely on workers changing their consumption habits to keep utility costs under control. This made it difficult to predict whether the amount collected each month would be sufficient to cover the actual utility bills, while manual billing and tenancy administration added another layer of work for the team.

However, scale was not the only challenge. Changi East Coastal Dorm also had different billing requirements across its rooms. While most rooms could follow the standard billing arrangement, certain room types needed to be charged differently. A standard, one-size-fits-all utility management system would therefore not fully meet the way the dormitory was operated.

Our Approach

We started by giving the operator something it previously lacked: visibility into how electricity and water were being used across the dormitory. IoT-based power and water meters were deployed within the existing infrastructure, allowing consumption to be tracked at individual room level and managed centrally through our VG Core platform.

From there, we adapted the platform around how Changi East Coastal Dorm actually operates. Rather than requiring all 1,040 rooms to follow the same billing logic, we customised the billing workflow so that selected room types could follow their own charging rules, while the remaining rooms continued under the standard arrangement.

This meant the operator did not have to change its existing business requirements to fit the technology. Instead, VG Core was configured to fit the operator's requirements, bringing different billing arrangements, utility monitoring and tenancy management together within the same platform.

The Outcome

The result is a much more controlled way of managing utilities across a large dormitory. With consumption now visible at room level, the operator can understand where electricity and water are being used, identify excessive consumption and bill according to the appropriate arrangement. This reduces the uncertainty of having to absorb unexpected utility costs and creates greater accountability for actual usage.

At the same time, processes that previously required repetitive administrative work can now be managed centrally and automated through VG Core. Even with different billing requirements across more than a thousand rooms, the team does not need to rely on separate manual workflows to manage those differences.

Real-time monitoring also gives the operations team an earlier view of faults and unusual consumption. Instead of waiting for an issue to become noticeable or for a worker to report it, the team can respond sooner and manage maintenance more proactively.

For Changi East Coastal Dorm, the value of the project goes beyond smart metering. It shows how a utility management platform can support a large and complex operation without forcing it into a fixed way of working. By customising the billing logic and workflows around the client's requirements, VG Core provides the flexibility to manage different operational needs at scale while keeping everything within one centralised system.