LANDIS+GYR, the Switzerland-based smart metering company led by Irish executive Cameron O'Reilly, has been chosen as part of a consortium for a large pilot installation project in France.
The consortium, lead by global IT group Atos Origin, has been selected in a public tender process for a project encompassing 300,000 Power Line Communication (PLC) meters and 7,000 concentrators in France.
The roll-out is expected to start early in 2010. Landis+Gyr will manufacture half of the data concentrators and 100,000 metering devices. The pilot installation will determine the shape of the second phase, expected to be the world's largest smart metering project covering the deployment of 35 million meters in France.
The meters will allow for a two-way flow of data between homes and utility providers to better manage energy use, efficiency, demand response and network protection. This will include information about consumption, tariffs, alerts and complimentary services. The project is being run under the auspices of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). It is one of the largest smart metering pilot installation projects in Europe.
The company said its technology would allow consumers to see real-time pricing on their bills, such as time of use, time of year, and time of day. "This will give consumers the ability to make informed decisions regarding how to use power efficiently and effectively," said Andreas Umbach, its chief operating officer.
Landis+Gyr is the only company in the winning consortium that assembles residential meters for Electricite de France (EDF), France's main electricity generation and distribution company. It recently agreed to supply three million smart meters to Texas utility Oncor in a deal believed to be worth about €360 million.
