Lithuania’s ESO to deploy 1.2 million smart meters with Siemens and Sagemcom
In Lithuania, utility company ESO will be deploying some 1.2 million smart meters as part of efforts to modernise its metering and grid infrastructure.
ESO has signed a 10-year contract with Siemens Smart Infrastructure for the supply, service, and maintenance of a meter data management platform.
Sagemcom will provide the utility with the smart meters and a head-end system whilst telecommunications firm Bitė Lietuva will install the communications network for data telemetry.
Siemens will also integrate ESO’s smart meter system with existing solutions and infrastructure including billing information, customer portal, and asset management systems.
The head-end system from Sagemcom will read and communicate data from the smart meters, which will be transported via Bitė Lietuva’s network for processing, storage, and managing in Siemens Smart Infrastructure’s cloud-based meter data management system.
The insights generated from the data are expected to help ESO to enhance the management of the grid network through access to real-time data regarding consumer behavior.
The smart meter project is expected to help reduce consumer energy usage by 6% and overall power losses across the grid by over 10%.
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The project is also expected to enable ESO to improve the management of its increasing capacity from distributed energy resources such as solar, battery energy storage and electric vehicle charging stations.
Sabine Erlinghagen, CEO of Digital Grid at Siemens Smart Infrastructure, said: “To master the increasing complexity of power grids, digitalisation is key. Smart meters are one important source of data.
“This will enable our customer to understand their data better, forecast and operate the power grid efficiently, and even reduce electricity consumption and power losses significantly.”
ESO will use the project to prepare itself for future business cases and provide consumers with demand-side management offerings such as demand response and Time of Use, which can enable the utility to optimise the management of the grid.
Siemens claims that EnergyIP meter data management as a standard system will be supplemented with several security features in order to meet the strict security requirements, including end-to-end encryption. This will be vital with cybersecurity concerns having delayed smart meter rollout for ESO.
The state utility announced that it will commence the installation of smart meters in the first half of 2022 as the energy firm awaits for cybersecurity infrastructure to be installed. As a result, instead of completing the rollout by the end of 2023, the project will only be finished by the end of 2025.
