Alliander awards 1.5 million address smart meter replacements

The replacements in grid operator Liander’s service area are necessitated by the phasing out of the GPRS technology currently used for meter data transmission.

The award of contracts by the Dutch network company Alliander is for the installation and replacement of electricity and gas smart meters at 1.5 million addresses in Liander’s service area, excluding the Wadden Islands.

Local construction companies BAM Energie & Water and Heijmans Infra are set to undertake the smart meter replacements in North Holland and South Holland, while Heijmans together with energy company Energiewacht are responsible for the works in Gelderland, Flevoland and Friesland.

The Alliander tender has a total value of €275 million (US$304 million) over a period of eight years.

There are now more than 5 million smart meters in Liander’s working area.

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In addition to the GPRS-based meters, in the long term the CDMA-based meters also will need to be replaced.

The new smart meters that are being installed use a future-proof network and ensure that the meter readings can continue to be read automatically.

The meters offer the possibility to continue monitoring energy consumption and support modern energy contracts.

In addition, there are still some old analogue meters in the network that need to be replaced and replacements also will be undertaken at the request of customers or due to malfunctions.

The contracts with the current contractors are coming to an end and work will start by the new contractors in the five provinces from July 2025.

The Netherlands has a high percentage of smart meters, approaching 90% penetration nationally.

With the sunsetting of 2G and 3G widespread by telecom operators, cellular based smart meters elsewhere also will need to be replaced, if they are not already.