Over a quarter million Landis+Gyr smart meters for Austria

Energy consortium chooses Landis+Gyr smart metering for the Styira region

Zug, Switzerland, 7 November, 2016 – Landis+Gyr, a leading global supplier of energy management and smart grid solutions, will supply a consortium led by Austrian utility Energie Steiermark with 330,000 smart meters. The meters will be rolled out to residential end-consumers in the country’s southern state of Styria.

Starting in late 2017, Landis+Gyr will deliver 330,000 E450 G3 power line communication (PLC) smart meters to an energy consortium consisting of Energie Steiermark, Energie Graz, Feistritzwerke Steweag and the service company Energy Services, which represents 26 small and medium-sized energy utilities. The order for the smart meters comes after the consortium signed a cooperation agreement for the delivery, support, training and maintenance of smart metering to the region of Styria earlier this year.

“This project will inject up to EUR150 million into the local economy,” says Christian Purrer, speaker of the board at Energie Steiermark. “And, in addition, it will create more than 200 jobs over the course of its 3-year installation phase. The ‘inner life’ of these smart meters was developed right here in Austria, and in the coming years we will be rolling out new products and new tariffs, to offer our customers more flexibility and also take better advantage of savings together. These smart meters mark the beginning of a new era, away from the old model of provider and consumer and into a new age of energy partnership.”

“The consortium is looking forward to working with Landis+Gyr; their smart meters will help us achieve our project goals including interoperability and security,” says Martin Graf, Member of the Board of Energie Steiermark, “The Landis+Gyr smart meters stand out as they run on G3 PLC technology which enables fast, secure and cost-efficient communication over existing power lines. Second, the meter is IDIS-certified: The availability of thoroughly tested interoperable products based on open standards is central to building a truly interoperable environment.”

Helmut Scherzer, Sales Manager Landis+Gyr Austria, says,”Landis+Gyr is delighted to work with this consortium to further support the development of smart metering in Austria. We are the first company in EMEA to receive the G3 Alliance certification for our smart electricity meters. We are also aware that interface specifications according to IDIS are important to the utility industry because they allow for long-term investments to be made with confidence: interoperability is achieved through compliance with international open standards – and our meters can grow hand-in-hand with ever-changing technology.”

The smart residential meter E450 from Landis+Gyr will be rolled out in Styria from the last quarter of 2017. The meter has been tested and certified according to Interoperable Device Interface Specifications (IDIS) package 2.0 and conforms to open international interoperability standards, ensuring seamless integration into a utility business system.

In April 2012, the Austrian Ministry for Economy, Family and Youth passed a decree that stated 95 percent of the country’s meters must be ‘smart’ by the year 2019. The act was passed as a response to the framework set out in the EU’s 3rd Energy Package, which states that at least 80 percent of European households should be enjoying the benefits of smart metering by the year 2020.