Schneider Electric Vies For India's 2nd-Largest Smart Meter Order
Schneider Electric, Genus Power Infrastructures and HPL Electric and Power are among the nine firms in the fray for a 2.35 million smart electricity meter order floated by state-run Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL). India’s second-largest smart meters’ contract comes in the backdrop of cancellation of a previous contract awarded to Indonesia-based PT Hexing following concerns over its failure to meet local manufacturing criteria. The others vying for the marque order are - Avon Meters, Linkwell Telesystems, Zen Meter, and Allied Engineering Works. India is rolling out the world’s largest electricity smart metering programme which has attracted the likes of Canada’s largest pension fund manager Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and sovereign wealth fund Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA). India aims to replace 250 million conventional meters with smart meters, that also hold the key to its electricity distribution reforms by checking thefts and improving electricity distribution companies (discoms) operational efficiencies. The country’ smart meter programme has also been garnering interest from large corporates such as Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), that plans to leverage its Jio business to offer meter data collection, communication cards, telecom and cloud hosting services to discoms. Also, French government-owned power utility Electricite de France SA (EDF) has been involved in for putting up five million smart meters.
Tags : ALLIED Schneider Electric India Genus Power Infrastructures HPL Electric