Schneider Electric eyeing Greece’s EUR 1.5 billion smart meter project

Schneider Electric has contacted the Hellenic Electricity Distribution Network Operator (HEDNO) to express interest in the replacement of around 7.5 million conventional electricity meters with smart meters, Kathimerini English Edition has reported.

The project to replace conventional electricity meters with smart meters, implemented by HEDNO, whose Greek acronym is DEDDIE, is worth EUR 1.5 billion, the portal wrote.

Schneider Electric, which is already cooperating with HEDNO on other projects, is now waiting for the Greek power grid operator to announce the details regarding tendering for the smart meter project, in which it will be participating, according to the report.

Spiros Raptis, managing director of Schneider Electric Greece and Cyprus, has said that talks with HEDNO have already taken place “in the context of the grid operator’s contacts with firms in the sector so as to confirm market interest and form the model through which the smart meter project will proceed,” the report reads.

According to the report, the scenarios on the table include the implementation of the project via private funds, through a public-private partnership (PPP), and by a strategic investor. The most likely scenario, presented in late April to the board of Public Power Corporation (PPC), envisages the creation of a subsidiary to which the existing analog meters will be passed on, and then the entry into that entity of a strategic investor with a 49% stake so as to ensure the financing of the project, the portal wrote.

Replacing the analog meters with digital ones will allow for the management of energy both by the grid operator and by consumers, while efficiently dealing with the problem of electricity theft for good, according to the report.

Schneider Electric recently installed an energy management system in the network of Italian power company Enel, which has led to savings of some 30%, the report adds.