Landis+Gyr Won Largest Smart Grid Contract in South America History
Landis+Gyr has further solified its position in the South American smart grid market by partnering with Brazilian electricity utility Light in a five year contract worth approximately R$750 million ($313 million USD). The agreement is the largest smart grid project in South American history; under the agreement Landis+Gyr will supply, implement its Gridstream smart grid solution with operation and maintenance of the system.
Landis+Gyr already operates a state of the art meter manufacturing plant in Curitiba Brazil, employing more than 450 people. with plans to increase production should the market demand increase.
The new intelligent, Gridstream network offers improved measurement and automated management functions on a single secure platform, and will also facilitate adoption of electric vehicles and wind and solar micro-generation technologies.
In addition to implementing the Gridstream solution Landis+Gyr will also deploy some 1.1 million endpoints, comprised of advance SGP+M anti-tampering meters and automation of power vaults and reclosers.
last year Light invested over R$ 400 million in its distribution system. Light said the contract is part of Light's ongoing effort to improve the efficiency and reliability of its electricity grid. As a result of the project Light said they will be able to take advantage of enhanced monitoring and control points throughout its network, helping to reduce commercial losses.
In the future Light hopes to provide its customers with greater pricing options and more information on their energy consumption patterns, helping them to manage their usage more efficiently. "The goal of Light is to provide an intelligent electricity network to 1.6 million consumers, equivalent to around 40% of our total customer by 2018," said Paulo Roberto Pinto, President of Light.
This partnership with Light is the latest in a string of major contract wins for Landis+Gyr. Since the start of 2013 the company has secured the two largest deployments in industry history with British Gas and Tokyo Electric Power Company, also signing major contracts with Salt River Project, Ameren and most recently, ERDF's Linky deployment project. Frost & Sullivan's latest research determined that Landis+Gyr had 44% of the 2013 global AMI meter market, excluding China.
Overall the South American smart grid market is expected to reach $49.8 billion by 2023; the study by Northeast Group see Brazil as the leading country in the region.