Ericsson will provide SAP’s HANA in-memory platform for this smart meter project
Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity and Water has announced a new smart meter project which will connect hundreds of thousands of buildings across the Arab country.
Under the project, the government aims to install a total of 800,000 electrical meters and 300,000 water meters in homes and office across Kuwait.
The smart meter project will be executed by Middle East carrier Zain, while Swedish vendor Ericsson will act as the system integrator.
The Ministry highlighted that smart meter sensors will transmit water and electricity data on Zain’s networks to the Ministry’s core systems. Ericsson will provide SAP’s HANA in-memory platform to process the data, which will be used for real-time data on utility usage and billing.
With the implementation of this initiative, customers will be able to pay bills online and via mobile apps, while the authorities will alert customers if their utilities usage spikes, and encourage more sustainable utility usage. The Ministry can also contact customers in case of emergencies.
“Kuwait’s residents expect to interact with their utilities providers as quickly and easily as any private sector company,” said Dr Meshan Alotaibi, assistant undersecretary of consumer affairs at Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity and Water. “By partnering with global technology companies, real-time utilities usage and billing will help our customers to save time and enhance our utilities maintenance and sustainability, all in line with Kuwait National Development Plan’s smart government goals.”
“Digital energy networks and smart meters are transforming utilities providers around the world. We’re exchanging global best practices in smart utilities for the Ministry to have a 360-degree customer view, for more efficient utilities maintenance, transmission, and distribution,” said Ahmed Al-Faifi, senior vice president and managing director at SAP Middle East North.
South Korean telco KT wins smart meter contract in Uzbekistan
In related news, Korean carrier KT has won a contract to install smart meters in Uzbekistan.
The Korean telecommunications firm said it secured the deal with the state-run power electricity supplier Uzbekenergo. Under the new contract, KT will install its smart meters in 360,000 households in the Jizzakh, Samarqand and Bukhara regions over the next two years.
KT’s smart meters will enable Uzbekistan’s power authority to monitor energy use in real-time. With the smart meters, the power authority can disconnect the power supply to households that have not paid their electricity bills, KT said.
The Asian carrier said that it had won a $100 million contract to deploy smart meters in Uzbekistan in 2015.
“Based on KT’s experience and know-how accumulated in Uzbekistan, we will further accelerate the spread of smart meter systems throughout the Eurasian market,” Yoon Kyung-rim, vice president of the KT Global Business Promotion Division, said.
