Finnish Power Suppliers Select Kamstrup for Smart Metering Projects

Online, August 13, 2010 (Newswire.com) - The major Finnish electricity suppliers Kymenlaakson Sähkö (KS) and Pohjois-Karjalan Sähkö (PKS) have chosen Kamstrup technology through their respective main contractors and service suppliers Empower and Mitox for their smart metering roll-out.

Kamstrup will deliver in total 146 000 smart meters (65 000 for KS and 81 000 for PKS), and an automatic metering system based on radio communication including concentrators and reading software.

Mitox and Empower will as main contractors be responsible for the meter reading service delivering hourly values on a daily basis.

Both roll-outs are expected to be completed at the end of 2014.

According to Sales manager Ville Rasimus, Mitox designated Kamstrup as subcontractor because of a long reference list from Sweden with more than 1 000 000 smart meters delivered and metering systems showing very high performances on readings using radio technology, above 99%.

Division manager, Lars Bo Kristensen, from Kamstrup is especially proud of these reading figures: "This tells us that we were right as we put our efforts in developing a wireless metering system based on radio and GSM/GPRS. Moreover the wireless radio mesh solution means that only a few meters need to be point-to-point meters which reduces communication costs considerably."

The meters will be delivered with remote disconnect function and zero-fault detection.
Features that will significantly save time and resources as extra visits to the customers are avoided.

Furthermore the meters are prepared to meet EU demands specifying customer access to in-house displays showing consumption data. By means of a smart home enabling external slot for a PCMCIA-module the customer can - without any installation costs or tools - connect the meter to other smart home devices.

From Empower vice president Marko Rytilahti is happy that Finland is now taking a major step into the smart grid-generation with strong partnerships uniting the best competences in the field of smart metering.
"We are definitely paving the way to the smart grid and developing the electricity market with future-proof technology. And it is a great pleasure to be able to join forces in the Nordic region," says Marko Rytilahti.

For further information please contact
Sales manager Ville Rasimus, Mitox: [email protected]
Vice president Marko Rytilahti, Empower: [email protected]
Division manager Lars Bo Kristensen, Kamstrup: [email protected]
www.kamstrup.com