The Ministry of Electricity has completed reviewing the financial bids for the tender of the supply of 250,000 smart electricity metres.
Husseiny El-Far, a member of the electricity companies’ distribution affairs, said that financial bids from nine companies have been examined. Two bids have been excluded and negotiations are underway with the remaining seven companies.
El-Far said the tender will be announced by the end of the week, adding that each company will be commissioned to supply a portion of the 250,000 metres.
A second tender is also being discussed with six of the nine companies.
The companies bidding for tender include ZTE, Huawei, Ericsson, Alcan, El Sewedy Electric, EIU INC, Gamma, and Siemens.
El-Far said that the current tender aims to implement a pilot project for the installation of 250,000 smart metres across six distribution companies, including 50,000 smart metres to the North Cairo Electricity Distribution Company and the South Cairo Electricity Distribution Company. The tender will also provide 25,000 metres to the Middle Egypt Electricity Distribution, South Delta Distribution Company, and Alexandria Electricity Distribution Company.
A subsidiary of the National Forces’ National Service Products Organisation (NSPO) is assisting the Ministry of Electricity with consultations for the tender, and is awarding the contracts.
According to the Ministry of Electricity, the smart metres project will help consumers improve their energy use, which would lower their bills. It will also enable clients to pre-pay for the electricity they would use, increase the accuracy of metre readings, and reduce the gap between taking the reading and issuing the bills.
The smart metres will enable clients to monitor consumption and rationalise its use. The screen of the metre will show all data regarding the remaining balance in kWh, its value in pounds, the remaining days, and the segment on which charges are calculated.
The Ministry of Electricity aims to install 20m smart metres over the coming 10 years, as part of the ministry’s strategy to eliminate wrong readings and electricity theft.
