The Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC) has contracted with five companies to supply 250,000 smart electricity metres to electricity distribution companies. El Huesseiny El Far, a member of the electricity companies' distribution affairs department in the Ministry of Electricity, said that contracts were signed with ZTE to supply electric metres to South Delta for Electricity Distribution company. Huawei contracted with Alexandria Electricity Distribution Company, and El Sewedy contracted with Canal Company for Electricity Distribution. He explained that Iskra will supply smart electricity metres to Middle Egypt Electricity Distribution Company. On the other hand, Sigmakom will handle supplying metres to North Cairo Electricity Distribution Company and the areas affiliated to it. El Far said that delaying the contract with companies has been for procedural reasons rather than technical or financial ones. The Electricity Ministry has finished agreeing with companies on all details and simple issues that were at the centre of discussion over the past period, including a part related to taxes and metre insurance. He added that the agreement with the five companies was held in cooperation with a consultative company affiliated to the armed forces. It handled monitoring the study of the contracts, the money to be paid, and the number of metres aimed to be supplied to each of the electricity distribution companies. The ministry aims to install 20 million smart metres during the upcoming 10 years as part of the strategy to eliminate wrong readings and electricity thefts. According to the ministry, the smart metres project will help consumers manage electricity, which would lower their bills. The project also enables clients to pre-pay for their consumption, increase the degree of accuracy of metre reading, and reduce the time period between the metre reading and billing. The smart metres will enable clients to monitor consumption and rationalise use, where the screen of the metre will show all data regarding the remaining balance in KW/h, its value in pounds, the remaining days, and the segment on which charges are calculated.
