Panama City, Panama --- (METERING.COM) --- April 16, 2013 - Panama City utility Gas Natural Fenosa has expanded its prepayment metering deployment following its experience gained with the first year of the project.

Phase 1 was launched in January 2012 in the district of Curundú, in coordination with the national Ministry of Housing. A total of 788 meters were installed in apartments, buildings, kiosks and shops, benefitting more than three thousand people.

Praia, Cape Verde --- (METERING.COM) --- April 15, 2013 - A new energy efficiency policy for West Africa calls for a reduction of electricity transmission and distribution losses across the region from the current range of 15 to 40 percent to under 10 percent by 2020.

This would release over 1,400 MW of power, which would contribute to helping the region achieve universal access to modern energy, improve energy security, as well as accelerate economic growth and social progress. It would also reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by 2 MtCO2e.

Tashkent, Uzbekistan --- (METERING.COM) --- April 15, 2013 - The Government of Uzbekistan and the World Bank last week signed a US$180 million loan towards the country’s advanced electricity metering project.

The project’s objective is to reduce the commercial losses of state power company Uzbekenergo's three regional power distribution companies in Tashkent City and the Oblasts of Tashkent and Syrdarya, by improving their metering and billing infrastructure and the commercial management systems.

Washington, DC, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- April 15, 2013 - In its latest round of funding for projects to improve electric service in rural areas, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has included more than $6 million for smart grid technology.

The recipients of this funding are:
Georgia Transmission Corporation (GA, AL, FL) – $3.09 million

Wellington, New Zealand --- (METERING.COM) --- April 12, 2013 - A more targeted rather than mass market approach to customer switching is likely to be the most prudent and worthwhile option for the future in New Zealand, according to a new discussion paper from New Zealand’s Electricity Authority.

The paper, which was prepared by the Authority’s Retail Advisory Group, was prepared to review options to promote comparison and switching of electricity retailers by consumers after April 2014, when the current initiatives are scheduled to cease.

Muscat, Oman --- (METERING.COM) --- April 12, 2013 - Muscat Electricity Distribution Company (MEDC) recently launched the ‘You know it better’ campaign to encourage customers to read and report their own monthly meter readings – and so successful has it been it is now being expanded to two subsidiaries, Majan Electricity Company and Mazoon Electricity Company.

L'Aquila, Italy --- (METERING.COM) --- April 12, 2013 - Enel Distribution has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Public Works, Heritage and Green Spaces of L’Aquila to develop a smart electric network in the central Italian city.

The €18 million 30 month, project will see a range of interventions, including the deployment of advanced logic and automation and control devices and IT, followed by sustainable mobility and customer awareness initiatives.

Washington, DC, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- April 11, 2013 - Smart meter spending in the Central & Eastern Europe (CEE) region will reach $10.3 billion cumulatively by 2023, with almost all electric utilities completing full smart meter deployments over that time period, according to a new study from Northeast Group, LLC.

The study, which reviews the growth of smart metering in ten CEE countries over the next decade, finds that fewer than half of these countries have completed their smart metering cost-benefit analyses, which were required by September 2012. Furthermore most of the countries have not yet officially transposed EU regulations into their national legislation, although they claim they intend to meet the EU timelines.

Windsor, U.K. --- (METERING.COM) --- April 11, 2013 - As part of their ongoing partnership, which has now been extended through the Foundation phase of Britain’s smart meter program, British Gas and Trilliant are working to develop a prepayment capability.

Trilliant supplies the smart metering communications system to British Gas, including the communications hubs and its UnitySuite head-end software for management of the smart metering business processes and communications service.

Luanda, Angola and Shenzhen, China --- (METERING.COM) --- April 11, 2013 - Angolan state utility EDEL (Empresa de Distribuição de Energia Eléctrica) is to rollout a smart electric meter turnkey solution from China’s ZTE Corporation.

Under the agreement, ZTE will provide a complete smart meter solution, including equipment, construction, personnel training and operations and maintenance. ZTE’s customized smart meter solution supports multiple tariffs and has enriched functionality. The communications module for this project includes a powerline carrier, which supports remote centralized meter reading.

Gaithersburg, MD, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- April 10, 2013 - The transformation of the aging power grid into a modern, “smart” energy distribution network brings with it a host of research and development requirements – as outlined in two new reports from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

These are Strategic R&D Opportunities for the Smart Grid and Technology, Measurement, and Standards Challenges for the Smart Grid, and aim to identify the most important technical issues in the smart grid arena, and prioritize impediments and R&D areas that must be addressed for successful deployment of the smart grid

Bristol, England --- (METERING.COM) --- April 10, 2013 - A project to harness the large volumes of data that will be produced by smart meters and present it in a form that can be used by the industry and consumers has been completed by the U.K.-based Center for Sustainable Energy, in partnership with the University of Bristol.

Houston, TX, U.S.A. and Doncaster, Australia --- (METERING.COM) --- April 10, 2013 - Energy wholesale market services provider EDF Trading, a subsidiary of Électricité de France (EDF), has selected Hansen Technologies’ CIS suite for Energy Retailers as its wholesale energy CIS solution.

Manila, Philippines --- (METERING.COM) --- April 9, 2013 - The Philippines Department of Energy has created an inter-agency steering committee to develop a national smart grid policy framework and roadmap.

The members of the committee include the DOE, which will also serve as chair, National Power Corporation (NPC), National Transmission Corporation (TransCo), National Electrification Administration (NEA), National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), and Philippine Electricity Market Corporation (PEMC).

Chicago, IL, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- April 9, 2013 - Illinois utilities ComEd and Ameren Illinois are to report annually on a set of new smart grid tracking mechanisms and metrics that have been developed in conjunction with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and the Citizens Utility Board (CUB).

The aim is to help determine how upgrades to Illinois’ electric grid are delivering benefits to consumers by focusing on where they are realizing the benefits of the improvements and the extent of their participation in these opportunities.

Bristol, England and Reston, VA, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- April 9, 2013 - British distribution network operator Western Power Distribution has deployed a new 50 Hz version of network assurance solutions provider Tollgrade Communications’ LightHouse distribution line sensors.

WPD is one of six electricity DNOs in the U.K. responsible for the Midlands, South Wales, and the South West, delivering electricity to more than 7.7 million customers over a 55,300 km2 service area.

Copenhagen, Denmark --- (METERING.COM) --- April 8, 2013 - The Danish Ministry of Climate, Energy and Building last week presented the country’s smart grid strategy, under which all households in the country will be supplied with smart metering by 2020.

This marks a major step towards the establishment of an intelligent energy system that will provide opportunities for consumers to manage their energy consumption, states the ministry press release.

Asunción, Paraguay --- (METERING.COM) --- April 8, 2013 - Paraguay’s state power utility Administración Nacional de Electricidad (Ande) is to rollout a pilot project of 10,000 smart meters with the first phase focused on the country’s capital, Asunción.

The $12 million project has been under development for six months, and the details are currently being finalized, said Ande president, Carlos Heisele, following the recent meeting of the government’s energy work group, chaired by President Federico Franco.

Menlo Park, CA, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- April 8, 2013 - SmartGridiX (SGiX) has been established in the United States as an alliance of professionals working to accelerate the adoption of Smart Grid 2.0 systems within the nation’s electricity, gas and water infrastructures (iX).

Washington, DC, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- April 5, 2013 - The Building Technologies Office in the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy office is to launch the Low-cost Wireless Meter Challenge to industry to produce a cost effective, wireless metering system capable of electrical energy measurement at various locations in a building and wireless communication to a remote data collection point within the building complex.