Washington’s SparkMeter wins two Somali grid digitisation contracts

Power grid solutions provider SparkMeter has announced two contracts with Somali utilities to support the digitisation of the country’s electricity grids, one of which they are calling the country’s first smart grid project.

According to the Washington DC-based tech company in a release, residents in Somalia pay some of the world’s highest prices for electricity and utilities, serving hard-to-reach customers, are suffering significant revenue loss.

SparkMeter offers grid monitoring solutions to address these challenges. To improve the cost and reliability of electricity for Somali consumers, SparkMeter’s solutions aim to help mitigate system losses, manage assets and forecast consumption patterns.

In the buildup to the contracts, SparkMeter coordinated two pilot programmes, one with Caabudwaq Electric Company (CECO) – the largest utility in Galmudug State – and another with National Energy Corporation of Somalia (NECSOM).

For the former, SparkMeter states their tech reduced systemwide electricity losses and improved collections through faster and more accurate meter readings. With the contract award, the company is planning to deliver its solution across CECO’s entire 10,000 customer base and CECO plans to raise investment for new clean energy projects.

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Following the pilot with NECSOM, initially announced in a blog post earlier this year in January, SparkMeter commenced a system-wide rollout to all 20,000 of the utility’s customers.

According to the company, the rollout is a first-of-its-kind smart grid project in the country; SparkMeter’s solution allows NECSOM to detect and quantify losses, identify overloaded transformers and offer flexible billing and payment options to its customers. As a result, the utility is improving its financial position and increasing the amount of renewable energy on its grid.

In the January NECSOM blog post, the utility said the collaboration paves the way for smart metering tech and digital grid solutions.

Commenting in a release was Giama Guled, chairman of CECO: “In Somalia, the majority of utilities must manage operations manually, requiring utility teams to physically take meter readings and log usage data. The entire process is time-intensive and prone to errors and delays.

“Now, with the introduction of SparkMeter’s technology, customer meter reads and billing processes are streamlined and customers have a wider range of payment options. This significantly reduces our system losses and allows us to provide better service to our customers.”

Added Mohamed Ahmed, CFO of NECSOM: “Before we started using SparkMeter’s technology, NECSOM needed two weeks to do meter readings and then generate and distribute invoices to our customers.

“Now with the help of SparkMeter, we will have access to accurate billing information in less than 10 hours once the technology is fully implemented, letting us spend our time on other essential processes.”

The contracts with NECSOM and CECO were announced in tandem with a pilot programme with another Somali utility, Blue Sky Energy, to mitigate system losses.

Somalia is one of 30 countries where SparkMeter is active.

Said Dan Schnitzer, CEO of SparkMeter: “The first step to closing the energy access gap in emerging markets is to empower utilities with transformative smart grid management solutions to decarbonize electricity distribution.

“Our utility customers in Somalia are some of the most forward-thinking leaders we’ve worked with, and we’re proud to continue to partner with them to ensure equitable energy access with utilities across the country.”