2010 European Utility Awards for Elster, Enel and Panasonic

Technology giants Elster, Enel and Panasonic are the winners of the 2010 European Utility Awards at the Metering, Billing/CRM Europe conference and exhibition in Vienna which were announced on Thursday, 23 September.

Some 3800 “smart” technology experts descended on the Austrian capital last week for the leading utility industry forums, Metering, Billing/CRM Europe and Smart Homes.

Key companies involved with power in Europe were nominated for the European Utility Awards and were honoured for specific projects that merit special attention. Awards were given in the following categories.

Enel Distribuzione	Elster Metering	Panasonic

Innovation: Elster Metering for the V210 polymer water meter
Elster has played a pioneering role in the innovation of polymer body water meters, with over a million installed worldwide. The V210 polymer water meter was developed to comply with the latest EU and other regional standards, such as UK WIS 4-32-19, and it is AMR compatible. With polymer body the V210 meter is about half the weight and has carbon footprint of a third of its brass body counterparts, and it is suitable for all installations including land that may be contaminated. Additionally, over 98% of the V210 polymer meter can be recycled into Grade 3 plastic products, according to Elster.

Business Performance: Enel Distribuzione
To exploit the data available on its more than 32 million smart meters Enel has implemented an advanced metering interface fully integrated with the MV telecontrol system (STAmi). With STAmi network operators are able to acquire, both in the office and in the field, real-time data from the smart meters, such as voltage interruptions and variations, energy consumption, load curves, available power threshold, etc. for network operations and management and business purposes. The STAmi assists in optimizing work force activities in the field, collecting service data for regulatory reporting, and improving customer satisfaction through more efficient and rapid feedback on network anomalies.

Customer Excellence: Panasonic
Panasonic is quite simply at the very forefront of the European move towards utilities providing energy consumers with customized, extensive, user friendly and attractive home energy management solutions. Through its partnership with SEAS-NVE, Panasonic solution aim to be the first extensive smart home offering to be rolled out by a utility in Europe. The energy industry urgently needs such pioneers to spearhead the way for others to follow. What really separates the Panasonic offering from others is the way in which it relates to the customer in an intuitive, non-technical, fun, aesthetic and customizable manner, moving beyond the industry's standard of graphs and numbers. The Panasonic approach brings functionality, practicality and appeal together.

2009 Award Winners

Business Performance Endesa, Spain	Customer Excellence SEAS NVE, Denmark	Innovation Electronic Housekeeper, UK

Review European Utility Awards 2009

In the business performance category the winner was Endesa Distribución Eléctrica of Spain for its project Cervantes. The project involves the rollout of smart metering, based on parent company Enel's AMM system, to Endesa's 13 million customers. Among the functionalities incorporated in the system are a remote disconnect/connect, automatic network detection of meters and adaptation to topological changes in the grid, optimized PLC technology, and a future-proof concentrator design. Thanks to the synergies between Endesa and Enel, and the strong teamwork developed, an optimised technology solution has been obtained which is extremely cost efficient and competitive, reducing the implementation time of the project to 5 to 6 years – 3 years less than initially forecast and also 3 years less than the regulatory requirement.

In the customer excellence category the winner was SEAS-NV for its “Målerjagten” (Meter Hunt) project. The Danish energy company's project comprises a campaign based on a competition where customers submit monthly meter readings, via web or SMS, which are used as lots to win a monthly prize of DKK50,000 (US$9,900). The readings are also used to classify each contestant in an energy class, in order to raise awareness of their energy consumption, and based on the information provided the customers are given individualized consulting on how to reduce their consumption. Although running for only about nine months to date, participants in Målerjagten have reduced their consumption by an average 17% so far.

In the innovation category the winner was Electronic Housekeeper Aps of Denmark for its electronic housekeeper. Built on the idea of making the dream of the intelligent home available for everyone, the electronic housekeeper is a wireless console, designed for people looking for a way to make their home intelligent while saving energy, money, and CO2. The console enables the utility company to use private homes and offices for grid management, by flexible consumption and automatic power cut off for selected customer appliances (like electrical heaters) when frequency is low. In this way, the utility is willing to finance some of the costs of intelligent homes for end users and thereby stimulate their interest in grid management.

2008 Award Winners

Business Performance Business Stream,UK	Customer Excellence RWE nPower, UK	Innovation Utiliq, The Netherlands

2007 Award Winners

Business Performance Hanze University	Customer Excellence Vaxjo Energi	Innovation Sentec

2006 Award Winners

Business Performance EDF	Innovation ISA	Customer Excellence Sutton and East Surrey Water

2005 Award Winners

Business Performance Endesa	Customer Excellence Eneco Energie	Innovation Harrison Ltd.