Bids submitted by four participants to a supplementary tender being staged by Greek electricity distribution network operator DEDDIE/HEDNO for the installation of an initial lot of 360,000 low-voltage smart meters, as an addition to 7.3 million smart meters planned through the project’s main tender, are expected to be opened for appraisal towards the end of next week.

This initial lot of 360,000 smart meters has been marked out for large-scale consumers as well as agencies and enterprises of the public sector.

The appraisal procedure for offers submitted to the main tender, offering a lucrative 1.2 billion-euro contract for the installation of 7.3 million smart meters throughout the country, still has a long way to go. Technical and financial details in the bids, amounting to hundreds of pages, present a humongous task for officials.

The same four bidders have submitted offers to both tenders. Greek company Protasis, partnering with France’s Sagemcom Energy & Telecom SAS; US corporation Itron’s Spanish subsidiary; fellow US firm Elster Rometrics’ Romanian subsidiary; and Slovenia’s Iskraemeco make up the field of contestants.

A fifth participant, Landis+Gyr, was disqualified from the main tender’s first round after officials deemed the company breached the tender’s conditions and terms by declaring, as a sub-contractor, a production facility other than its Corinth plant, west of Athens, which serves as an international hub for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Landis+Gyr took legal action but the Council of State, Greece’s Supreme Administrative Court, rejected the case.

Following the court’s decision, the CEO of the company, Werner Lieberherr, stated he was suspending any further investments he had planned in Greece and would seek other countries for production.