Endesa, a leading electric power company serving more than 25 million customers in Spain and Latin America, has signed a business process outsourcing (BPO) contract with Accenture to facilitate the utility’s ongoing smart meter rollout in Spain.
Under this contract, Accenture is providing back-office support to Endesa’s distribution unit as it expands its smart metering operations and is helping the utility integrate its smart meter infrastructure that provides metering, billing and contract management information, with its existing billing systems and business processes.
Accenture has partnered with Meters and More, an international non-profit association created by Endesa and its parent company, Italian utility Enel, and supported by a consortia of companies, to promote the deployment of smart meters and develop standards for pan-European and worldwide smart metering solutions.
Endesa will install more than 13 million smart meters based on Meters and More open technology.
Smarts meters are gradually replacing traditional meters to provide remote management capabilities for utilities. They can record consumption of electric energy and deliver that information to the utility for monitoring and billing purposes and opens the door to the deployment of smart grids. Smart meters enable two-way communication between the meter and a utility’s central system.
“As a member of Meters and More, Accenture is committed to developing new solutions to support the deployment of smart meters globally,” said Matias Alonso, global managing director for Accenture’s Utilities industry group. “We are focused on working with Endesa to promote smart metering solutions not only across Europe but also in its other key markets, such as Latin America.”
As required under Spanish regulations, Endesa will install more than 13 million smart meters in Spain by 2018 and is planning to extend the smart meter program to its customers in Brazil, Colombia and Chile.
Since the launch of its smart meter infrastructure roll-out in June 2010, Endesa has installed more than 3.5 million smart meters based on Meters and More open technology in the regions where it operates in Spain.
Also read: Smart meter rollout grows by 6 percent during 2010-13