Tshwane awards prepayment meters contract

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28 October 2009 News

Actom Protection & Control (P&C) (formerly Alstom Protection & Control), with the assistance of Actom Siyakha’s Pretoria branch, recently landed a two-year supply contract from the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality’s Electricity Department to supply ‘smart’ prepayment meters to be installed at consumers’ sites throughout the city.

The contract, worth over R50 million, was won by the company in competition with numerous other suppliers of smart prepayment meters. “This contract is also especially significant for us because it is the first prepayment meters contract we have won since introducing our line of imported prepayment meters into the local market,” comments Faisal Hoosen, P&C’s metering sales manager. The prepayment meters supplied by P&C are produced by a reputable overseas manufacturer that is a leading global supplier of smart metering products.

Actom personnel seen here with Tshwane Electricity Department officials during one of the training sessions that was organised to prepare various staff members of the department for the introduction of smart prepayment meters

In terms of the contract, the prepayment meters are required to have automatic load limiting and load disconnection capabilities. “The meters being supplied are designed to operate as smart meters, but initially they will be used purely as conventional prepayment meters without their smart metering features being utilised. Tshwane Municipality’s Electricity Department will be able to use them fully as smart meters at a later stage, without the meters themselves having to be modified for that purpose,” explains Hoosen. “To do so will require installing a back-end system, consisting of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) software in the Electricity Department’s control centre to enable remote two-way communication between the control centre and the prepayment meters in order to execute, typically, load limiting and load disconnection functions, among others.”

A spokeman for the Tshwane Electricity Department said P&C’s bid fully met the AMI specifications of the tender. “While several other contenders also met these specifications, what made P&C different was that its price was much lower than the others,” he comments. “To give some idea of how reasonable its price was, the next best bid on price alone was a lot higher but it did not qualify because it was offering outdated technology that did not include smart metering functionalities.”

For more information contact Martin Kelly, Actom Protection & Control, +27 (0)11 820 5319.

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Tshwane awards prepayment meters contract

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