French utility launches one of Europe’s largest smart metering pilot projects

The consortium, led by Atos Origin, the international information technology company, has been selected in a public tender process for a pilot project encompassing 300,000 Power Line Communication (PLC) meters and 7,000 concentrators in France. The project roll-out is expected to start early in 2010. Landis+Gyr will manufacture half of the data concentrators and one third of the metering devices. The outcome of this pilot installation will be key for the 2nd phase, the world’s largest smart metering project covering the deployment of 35 million meters.

"The project win underscores Landis+Gyr’s rank as the worldwide leader in electricity metering with a preeminent position in smart metering”, said Cameron O’Reilly, Chief Executive Officer of Landis+Gyr. “We are ready and committed to play a significant role in the world’s largest smart metering project.”

By deploying this smart metering solution ERDF is pre-empting changes in the European regulation governing the electricity distribution sector. ERDF has defined, amongst others, the scalability of the system, the use of open communication protocols, the interoperability of components and systems and the expected reduction of operating costs to justify the ROI, as key objectives and selection criteria for the pilot project.

Currently, Landis+Gyr is the only company in the winning consortium that assembles residential meters for ERDF in France, carried out at Montluçon. As a result of a long-term partnership, Landis+Gyr has delivered a variety of electricity meters both with and without communication to EDF over the years. Currently, more than 10,000 of EDF’s I&C meters have been equipped with Landis+Gyr’s PLC technology.