The Ministry of Electricity is set to announce the companies that have won the tender to supply 250,000 smart metres by the end of January. El-Husseiny El-Far, a member of the electricity companies' distribution affairs department in the Electricity Ministry, told Daily News Egypt that the financial envelopes of seven companies have been opened and are now being negotiated. The winning companies and their portions will be announced by the end of January. The companies that are bidding for the tender include ZTE, Huawei, Ericsson, ElSewedy Electric, IEU, and Gamma. He explained that the current tender aims at implementing a pilot project to install 250,000 smart metres spanning six distribution companies, including 50,000 metres for North and South Cairo Electricity Distribution companies and Canal Company for Electricity Distribution, as well as 25,000 metres to each of Middle Egypt Electricity Distribution Company, South Delta Electricity Distribution Company, and Alexandria Electricity Distribution Company. The Ministry of Electricity has used assistance from a subsidiary of the National Service Products Organization (NASPO) to conduct consultations for the tender, rehabilitate the companies, and award the winning. According to the Ministry of Electricity, the smart metres project will help consumers better manage electricity, which would lower their bills. The project also enables clients to pre-pay for their consumption, increase the degree of accuracy of metre reading, and reduce the time period between the metre reading and billing. The smart metres will enable clients to monitor consumption and rationalise use, where the screen of the metre will show all data regarding the remaining balance in kWh/H, its value in pounds, the remaining days, and the segment on which charges are calculated. The ministry aims to install 20m smart metres in the coming 10 years, as part of the strategy to eliminate wrong readings and electricity theft.
