Smart meters rollout in Zurich picks up pace
Image: ewz
The large scale rollout of electricity, gas and water smart meters across the city of Zurich, which began in 2024, is picking up speed.
The three municipal utilities ewz, Wasserversorgung and Energie 360° are working closely together on the implementation of the project and in the coming years intend to push ahead with equipping all buildings with smart meters.
The large-scale installation of smart electricity meters by energy supplier ewz began in August 2024.
Smart meters for water have been successively installed by Wasserversorgung since May 2024.
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Energie 360°, Zurich’s gas supplier, has been gradually installing smart meters since April 2024 where gas will still be supplied for at least five years.
City Councillor Michael Baumer, head of the Department of Industrial Enterprises, commented: “An efficient infrastructure is the basis for the attractiveness and economic power of our city. With the installation of smart meters, we are taking an important next step in the digitisation of supply networks.”
With the smart electricity meters, customers will be enabled to view their daily electricity consumption via the ‘Mein ewz’ online portal, which also offers digital energy advice that promotes the conscious use of energy.
The smart meters also provide a basis for the smart grid and the improved integration of renewable energies.
Under the government’s energy strategy 2050, all Swiss electricity suppliers are obliged to replace at least 80% of conventional electricity meters with smart meters by the end of 2027.
ewz is targetting replacing as many conventional meters as possible with smart meters by 2029, amounting to almost 300,000 in the city of Zurich and around 4,000 in the company’s supply area in the eastern Switzerland canton of Graubünden.
Customers also are able to access detailed gas consumption information on a web portal.
For its part, Wasserversorgung is planning to instal around 33,000 smart water meters in stages by 2036 – on average around 3,200 smart meters.
These meters are expected to ensure more efficient operation of the water supply, in particular through enabling the location of leaks and pipe damage in addition to consumption data collection.
Similar to the previous meters, the smart meters are usually installed in the basement.
All the consumption data is sent to the respective operator via ewz’s fibre optic based communication infrastructure.
