Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) has issued a request for procurement (RfP) for smart meters for electricity and water consumers with two-way communication technology.

A bidder can either bid for both types of meters (electricity and water) or only one.

The successful bidder will be responsible for the design, manufacturing, inspection, performance, and supply of the electricity meters.

To be eligible to bid, a bidder needs to submit references for three smart meter projects conducted in three different countries and these should have been completed during the last five years. Each project should have at least 2,00,000 electricity meters operating successfully for more than one year.

The bidder will have to submit accelerated life testing report for a minimum of 15 years, and submit a letter declaring that there is no intellectual property rights infringement against the manufacturer.

Bidders will also provide the operations and maintenance manual in English and Arabic and provide training for at least 30 MEW Kuwaiti employees.

India also plans to replace all existing electricity meters with smart prepaid meters in the next three years and many cities and agencies have floated tenders in order to phase out the conventional meters eventually.

Recently in Uttar Pradesh, the Madhyanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited issued a tender to set up bi-directional smart meters.  The bi-directional smart meters will be set up for each state-owned power distribution company in the state of Uttar Pradesh and benefit 4.5 million consumers.

In January 2019, the National Thermal Power Corporation issued a tender for the installation of smart meters for its Faridabad township.

In October 2018, the Asian Development Bank successfully completed the pilot phase of its satellite-based smart meter project in a village in Varanasi in which 5,000 households received the meters.

Nitin is a staff reporter at Mercomindia.com and writes on renewable energy and related sectors. Prior to Mercom, Nitin has worked for CNN IBN, India News, Agricultural Spectrum and Bureaucracy Today. He received his bachelor’s degree in Journalism & Communication from Manipal Institute of Communication at Manipal University and Master’s degree in International Relations from Jindal School of International Affairs. More articles from Nitin Kabeer