Innovative projects awarded at Asian Utility Week 2017
The Asian Utility Innovators Awards took place last month as part of Asian Utility Week, held in Bangkok, Thailand. The awards were presented to the most innovative projects and solutions across integrated systems, including smart meters, communications networks and data management systems.
Japan’s largest utility, TEPCO, was the winner of the Best AMI or IoT Network Rollout Project for the world’s largest and fastest deployed utility IoT network, which supports the company’s smart meter rollout. Featuring an AMI and data management solution from energy management company Landis+Gyr, 11 million out of an eventual 27 million smart meters have already been installed, with an early project completion date likely.
TEPCO has set out to leverage the capabilities of smart meters to deliver efficient energy services for its customers, providing them with choice of rate plans and visibility into their consumption to promote energy savings. Landis+Gyr is supplying TEPCO with a fully scalable solution to accelerate the development of smart cities in Japan.
“The project has set the company up as an example to the global energy market of what is truly possible in the realm of smart grid and smart cities,” said Landis+Gyr’s global CEO, Richard Mora. “The timeline of the project has been cut from 10 to seven years, with up to 130,000 smart meters being supplied each week.”
Manila Electric Company (Meralco) won the award for the Best Customer Engagement Project for a prepaid solution called Kuryente Load (KLoad). Meralco is the Philippines’ largest electric distribution utility and is committed to providing total energy solutions to over six million customers in 36 cities and 75 municipalities within its franchise area.
KLoad is the one of the world’s first prepaid offerings, integrated with mobile telecommunications, to be supported by AMI and smart meters. KLoad allows daily account and consumption monitoring via mobile phones. As a result, customers are able to manage consumption and save an average of 20% on their electricity expenses.
“The uniqueness of this particular prepaid solution is what sets it apart,” said Mora. “KLoad has set the benchmark for local and global prepaid electricity offerings because granular, timely and accurate meter readings make daily energy management possible.”
Other award winners included:
- Best Digital Transformation Project or New Solution — Implementation of Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) to Monitor TNB Power Grids by TNB & Aerodyne Geospatial Sdn Bhd
- Best DSM or Energy Efficiency Project — Large-scale & innovative Demand Response by TEPCO Energy Partner & Energy Pool
- Best Smart Asian Utility Week Start Up — LO3
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