The preparation phase for the installation of 1.2 Million Digital meters across Lebanon was completed, including the approval of the installation plans, meter specifications, and other required documents.
On August 29, 2013, and as an important phase of the AMI rollout deployment plan, a set of pilot projects were initiated by the three Distribution Service Providers with the contribution of Six international AMI meters manufacturers to cover 25 substations in different locations and install more than 3500 customer meters: (El Sewedy Electrometer from Egypt with ZPA from Czech Republic, Echelon and Itron from USA, , Iskraemeco from Slovenia, Sagemcom from France, and ZIV from Spain).
The pilot was implemented in different areas to cover urban, semi-urban, and rural areas taking into consideration the geography of the country, density of population, number and consumption of customers, numbers, and the MV substations to ensure the proper correlation of energy flow. EDL and NEEDS were dedicated to manage the overall process from the design phases, the workshops, the testing and the close follow up of the field work.
On September 19, 2013 and in the presence of H.E. Minister of Energy and Water, EDL Chairman, NEEDS Chairman, and in the presence of large media coverage, a live demonstration was performed on the meters' functionalities to ensure their proper operation, including the remote connection through GPRS communication.
