Final-round qualifiers, four in total, in a tender being staged by Greek electricity distribution network operator DEDDIE/HEDNO to offer a lucrative contract for the installation of approximately 7.5 million smart meters throughout the country have received all relevant information, including notification on their technical and financial offers, which will need to be submitted in the second week of November.

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 have qualified for the tender’s final round.

The four qualifiers have been provided all details concerning the technical requirements of the project, budgeted at 1.2 billion euros, up from an initial estimate of 800 million euros.

Meanwhile, the Council of State, Greece’s Supreme Administrative Court, has, according to sources, rejected a case filed by Swiss-headquartered group Landis+Gyr, challenging DEDDIE/HEDNO for its disqualification from the tender in the first round.

The court, sources informed, ruled that the distribution network operator was right to disqualify Landis+Gyr from the procedure as the company declared, 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.