Lithuania has partnered up with Siemens Smart Infrastructure, as well as Sagemcom and Bitė Lietuva, to help with the roll-out of 1.2 million smart meters across the country.
While the UK began its smart meter roll-out back in 2016, there have been some considerable bumps in the road. In fact, the roll-out was meant to be complete by 2020, but here we are in 2021 with less than 50% penetration.
However, hopefully learning from the UK’s mistakes, Lithuania will lean heavily on Siemens and its partners as part of the roll-out.
Siemens will provide Lithuanian distribution system operator ESO with the EnergyIP meter data management system, as well as service and maintenance for 10 years, while Sagemcom is supplying the 1.2 million smart meters and the Siconia head-end system, which reads the data generated by the meters. Lastly, Bitė Lietuva, a telecommunications provider in Lithuania, is the partner for communication technology.
The new smart meter infrastructure claims to enable the ESO to reduce electricity consumption by up to 6%, cut power losses in the overall supply network by over 10%, and lead to higher energy efficiency in the overall operations. Whether that will actually happen as a result of smart meters, remains to be seen.
“To master the increasing complexity of power grids, digitalization is key. Smart meters are one important source of data. We are very proud that ESO has chosen Siemens and its partners to provide smart meter management infrastructure to Lithuania. This will enable our customers to understand their data better, forecast and operate the power grid efficiently, and even reduce electricity consumption and power losses significantly,” said Sabine Erlinghagen, CEO of Digital Grid at Siemens Smart Infrastructure.
EnergyIP meter data management as a standard system will be supplemented with several security features in order to meet the strict security requirements, including end-to-end encryption. As a result, new challenges arising from the large-scale expansion of photovoltaic systems, battery storage systems, charging infrastructure for electromobility, and other grid participants can be solved in a targeted manner. This lays the foundation for future-ready grid operation.
For Siemens, the contract in Lithuania also includes the integration of the provided solution with ESO legacy systems, such as the billing information system, ESO’s customer portal and Enterprise Asset Management system.
