Power meters deadline reset for November 3

A revised international tender for the supply and installation of 170,000 digital electricity consumption meters in various parts of the country, especially on islands, as part of a pilot installation program with an expansion capability of 30,000 additional meters, has just been published by the Hellenic Electricity Distribution Network Operator, HEDNO, locally known as DEDDIE.

The tender was originally announced during the summer, with a September 22 deadline for bidders. However, DEDDIE acknowledged certain shortcomings with regard to technical requirements, made revisions, and has extended the deadline to November 3. Besides the technical details, no other revisions were made to the tender.

The revisions made allow for a wider range of companies to participate in the tender, from software companies to construction groups.

The project’s budget amounts to 86.5 million euros, according to DEDDIE. Areas chosen for the pilot program are: Xanthi, northeastern Greece, with 60,000 digital power meters; Lesvos in the northern Aegean with 80,000 meters; Lefkas, western Greece with 20,000 meters; the wider Athens area with 7,000 meters and central Macedonia in northern Greece with 3,000 meters. The contract will include an option for additional installations on three more islands: Santorini (17,000 meters);  Kythnos (3,000 meters) and Mylos (10,000 meters).

Various companies are believed to be interested in the tender, including Intrakat with Intralot as a sub-contractor, OTE, Ericsson, GEK-Terna, as well as a number of Chinese enterprises. IBM and Siemens have also been mentioned as possible bidders.

Participants will be backed by meter manufacturers. Based on older associations, GEK-Terna has worked with Actaris, while Intrakat was the winning bidder of a HEDNO tender last year for the installation of large-consumer meters with a Singapore manufacturer as its partner. As for Ericsson, it could join forces with Swiss-based multinational Landis+Gyr, which runs a branch in Corinth, west of Athens. Just weeks ago, Ericsson and Landis+Gyr announced they would join forces for a Finnish project entailing the installation of 700,000 power meters.