Digital meters tender appeal rejected, high court to decide

HEDNO, the Hellenic Electricity Distribution Network Operator, has rejected an extrajudicial initiave taken by a consortium comprised of OTE, Intrakat and Intrasoft International, the losing bidder of a pilot tender concerning the procurement and installation of an initial lot of 200,000 digital power meters for low-voltage household and small-scale commerical use in various parts of the country.

A final decision is now expected from the Council of State, Greece’s Supreme Administrative Court, following a case filed by the trio against Intracom Telecom, the tender’s winning bidder.

The Supreme Court accepted a legal case filed by OTE-Intrakat-Intrasoft International in March and sought clarification from HEDNO on its decision to delare Intracom Telecom the tender’s winner. Two key issues concern the Council of State. It has sought confirmation from the winning bidder on the inclusion of an option for the procurement and installation of an additional 50,000 digtal power meters besides a basic plan for 160,000 meters. The court has also sought further details as to whether the offer made by the winning bidder is unusually low, as claimed by the losing OTE-Intrakat-Intrasoft International consortium.

Intracom Telecom submitted a 46 million-euro offer to take on the smart meters pilot project, compared to a 62 million-euro offer made by OTE, Intrakat and Intrasoft International.

The pilot tender is being staged as a prelude to the project’s main tender, entailing the procurement and installation of approximately six million digital power meters throughout Greece. This project’s budget is estimated to be worth over one billion euros.

The initial tender is of crucial importance as two technologies, power line carriers and wireless GPRS/3G systems, will be tested ahead of the main tender.