Enel invests RON 53 million in 171,000 smart meters for customers in Muntenia, Dobrogea and Banat

Enel Group division E-Distribution Muntenia, E-Distribution Dobrogea and E-Distribution Banat, of electricity distribution will install over 171,000 smart meters this year for customers in their areas activity in investment projects worth over RON 53 million. By the end of 2019, more than 671,000 customers of E-Distribution will benefit from smart metering systems.

“Intelligent meters will lay the foundations for future smart grids that are defining to meet the challenges of energy transition, promoting the development of clean, sustainable and efficient energy systems,” said Gino Celentano, Managing Director E-Distribution Muntenia, E-Distribution Dobrogea and E-Distribution Banat. “We continue to take advantage of Enel’s vast international experience in digital technologies to install smart meters in all regions served by E-Distribution companies to further improve our quality of service and bring more benefits to our customers.”

The program for installing smart meters by E-Distribution companies will be implemented according to the plan approved by the National Authority for Energy Regulation (ANRE).

The implementation plan, as well as the 4 previous projects, based on which over 500,000 smart meters have already been installed, are part of Enel’s medium-term strategy of installing smart meters for the entire 2.9 million customer base of the company in Romania.

Thus, another 171,000 customers will benefits of intelligent metering of electricity consumption, such as remote meter reading, replacing field readings and consumption estimates, giving customers more information about their consumption profile . Smart meters can also communicate with the real-time distributor, allowing for easier identification of network failures, so that the company can intervene faster and more efficiently, improving the quality of networks and services. In the case of the use of renewable energy sources, the meter will be able to record both the energy consumed and the energy injected into the network.

E-Distribution Muntenia has scheduled for 2019 the installation of approximately 80,000 new smart meters in the counties of Giurgiu and Ilfov. E-Distribution Muntenia has deployed in Giurgiu County the largest smart meter installation campaign in its electricity distribution grid, so that more than 90 percent of its customers in the county will benefit by the end of this year by a device intelligent metering of electricity consumption. E-Distribution Dobrogea will install over 42,000 smart meters in the counties of Calarasi, Constanta, Ialomita and Tulcea, while E-Distribution Banat will install counters with the new technology for almost 50,000 customers in the counties of Arad, Caras-Severin, Hunedoara and Timis.

By the end of 2028, the smart meter penetration rate in the E-Distribution customer base will exceed 60 percent. Thus, in the case of E-Distribution Muntenia, the company will install smart meters for 65 percent of all users. E-Distribution Dobrogea will install smart meters for 70 percent of all customers, while the percentage for E-Distribution will be 60 percent of total consumers.

Also, as a result of extensive investment programs in network modernization, the quality of services has significantly improved, with E-Distribution companies being among the top performers of power distribution in Romania. According to ANRE official reports for 2017, the SAIDI for E-Distribution Muntenia index was 145 minutes, the highest performing in the country, the national average being 283.9 minutes. E-Distribution Dobrogea and Banat also had performances below the national average, with the SAIDI index of 185 minutes and 259 minutes, respectively.