Romania’s Delgaz Grid to install another 11,000 smart meters

Delgaz Grid, a subsidiary of E.ON in Romania, is delivering smart meters to 22 communes in Neamt county in the Moldavia region in the country’s northeast.

The more than 11,000 smart meters are being delivered to homes and small businesses, with the rollout also being supplemented with the installation of other infrastructure to upgrade and smarten the distribution network in the area.

The low voltage distribution network in the localities included in the project will be modernised along a length of almost 280km, which amounts to about 90% of the existing network in these areas subject to the investment.

The main works consist of the replacement of more than 2,000 network poles and the installation of almost 1,500 branch poles, conductor replacement, the installation of new transformer stations and the installation of new distribution boards.

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Benefits expected from the smart meters include automatic meter reading, more accurate billing, the implementation of differentiated tariffs and remote connection/disconnection, as well as the availability of various network alarms to the central system.

Other general objectives include monitoring the energy supply on the distribution network up to the meter, a reduction in the number and length of service interruptions and a reduction in commercial and technical losses.

The project got under way in December and has a total investment of RON79 million (US$17.2 million), partly funded from the European Regional Development Fund REACT EU programme.

Delgaz Grid says in a statement that accessing European funding sources is a current priority for the company to support its objectives for the modernisation and digitising of the distribution infrastructure.

Currently several other projects are under way, including two smart meter rollouts in the municipalities of Iași and Suceava respectively in eastern and northeastern Romania and the modernisation of five transformer stations for the integration of renewable energies.

E.ON has targeted the deployment of more than 700,000 smart meters in Romania by 2028, of which about half that number are currently installed.