Italian utility Enel is expanding smart meter initiatives to Romania
Italian utility Enel announced plans to expand its smart meter program in Romania with the expected roll out of more than 150,000 smart devices in the country during 2017.
The European firm had rolled out a total of 140,000 smart meters in its Romanian operation during 2016.
The utility said that the smart meters will be installed in Muntenia Sud, Dobrogea and Banat, the areas in which Enel has its distribution operations in the country.
“The digital transformation brought by smart meters bring place the consumer in the center of our attention, offering customers an improved experience: data access to real time consumption, the option to monitor energy consumption, billing based on exact consumption and remote restart of service in case of faults,” said Georgios Stassis, country manager at Enel Romania.
In Muntenia, Enel will install around 70,000 smart meters in key areas from Bucharest and Ilfov County. In Dobrogea and Banat, Enel will install 40,000 smart meters in each region.
Enel has over 2.8 million customers in Romania. The company employs over 3,100 people locally.
Monitored alarm systems in Europe and North America reached 41 million at the end of 2016
In related news, the number of monitored alarm systems in Europe is forecasted to grow from 8.7 million in 2016 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4% to reach 10.6 million in 2021, according to a recent study by Swedish M2M/IoT market research firm Berg Insight.
In North America, the number of monitored alarm systems is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 2.9% from 32.1 million at the end of 2016 to 37.1 million at the end of 2021.
There is still a significant growth potential for monitored small alarm systems, especially in Europe where the total penetration reached only 3.7 percent of all businesses and households at the end of 2016, according to the study. “The penetration of monitored alarm systems in North America is much higher than in Europe and the corresponding figure was in this region 22% at the end of 2016”, said Anders Frick, Senior Analyst at Berg Insight.
