Tunisia-STEG: One billion dinars to acquire smart meters

Smart meters will be generalized in Tunisia by 2029, through the set up of approximately 4 million meters. The initial stage of the project is developed over 3 years with a one-year warranty period given by the supplier, given that the use of meters is generalized during the period 2025-2029.

From December 3, 2020, an international call for smart meters project will be started and assessed on behalf of STEG, which will apply one billion dinars to its realization, explained the director of the control. of technology and the president of the smart grid project at STEG, Néjib Chtourou.

“More than 50 Tunisian and foreign companies participated in this call for tenders, including 1/3 of Tunisian origin, to supply STEG with smart meters,” he explained to the TAP agency, adding that the call for tenders is made up of 6 sections, part of which concerns meters and two sections specific to computer systems distributed between the computer system for managing meters and the other for managing customer affairs.

The project is estimated to be a pilot and ambitious project, which should make it likely to stop the flat-rate system so that citizens can command the rate of electricity and gas consumption at any time and remotely, in addition to controlling their bill. energy. Smart meters will make it possible to calculate consumption bills every month.

The project was due to start as a pilot experiment in 2019 in Sfax, but it was postponed for reasons that the official described as objective and irrelevant to the public procurement process.

In terms of funding, the official said that STEG will identify mechanisms in this area, despite the financial difficulties it is experiencing, while emphasising that the company’s investment plan showed that the establishment of this project will allow STEG a return on investment, ie a recovery after 12 years of its investments injected into the entire project, the total cost of which is 1 billion dinars.

He said that thanks to this type of meter, the consumption will no longer be read by the agents, thus avoiding the cost of their travel, in addition to the establishment of an actual consumption bill, saving time and possibility of remotely measuring the parameters of customer meters. The project should also reduce business losses and theft, knowing that any human intervention on the smart meter will be intercepted, unlike conventional meters.