Greentech Lead Asia: ZTE, a Chinese provider of telecommunications equipment, network solutions and mobile devices, has won a smart electric meter turnkey project with Angola EDEL (EDEL).
Under the agreement, ZTE will provide complete smart meter solutions to EDEL, including equipment, construction, personnel training and operations and maintenance (O&M).
ZTE’s customized smart meter solution supports multiple tariffs and has enriched functionality. It prevents electricity bill arrears, improving management efficiency and reducing operational costs of manual meter reading. The ZTE communications module for this project includes a power line carrier, which supports remote centralized meter reading.
The project is intended to solve problems such as electricity bill arrears, time-consuming manual meter reading and electricity theft, and improving EDEL’s management efficiency and reducing its O&M costs.
“As a reliable partner of the electrical power industry, ZTE provides complete smart grid solutions,” said Wang Yiwen, CTO of ZTE Government and Enterprise Network in the Middle East and Africa.
ZTE has deployed comprehensive smart energy solutions for over 100 industrial customers across 50 countries and regions across the globe.
EDEL is responsible for electricity distribution and supply in Angola’s capital, Luanda, and has a 65 per cent market share.
According to Pike Research, the market for smart grid technologies is estimated to grow from $33 billion annually in 2012 to $73 billion by the end of 2020, totaling $494 billion in cumulative revenue over that period.
The annual revenue from Power Line Communications (PLC) systems for smart grid applications will grow from $283 million in 2012 to more than $418 million by 2020, the research agency said.