On 19 July 2019, the SMART.MET consortium announced the four companies to be awarded a Phase 2 contract for the ‘prototyping’ stage of the pre-commercial procurement (PCP), which will last until April 2020.
The companies will now have the opportunity to demonstrate the functionalities of their solutions, as well as the validity of the prototypes in all their components: meter, communication infrastructure, and control systems.
Following the tendering process (see here), opened on 29 June, and subsequent Phase I on ‘solution exploration and design’, from December 2018 to March 2019, the consortium has decided to award a contract to four companies, based on both a technical and an economic evaluation of the offers submitted:
- Dynamic Consulting, Abering Contadores de Agua, Gomez Group Metering (Spain)
- Hydroko, Ng (Belgium)
- Fast S.P.A (Italy)
- Telereading (Italy)
Next, from July 2020 to May 2021, providers will be selected to carry out the field testing of the proposed solutions.
Read more on the project website: smart-met.eu
Funded under the Horizon 2020 research programme, the SMART.MET project aims to promote demand-driven research into the development of new innovative smart meter solutions that fully cater to the needs of water utilities, in terms of readability, battery lifetime, interoperability and cost.
The consortium is composed of seven water utilities, members of Aqua Publica Europea, from five different EU countries which came together in the SMART.MET project with the objective to launch a pre-commercial procurement (PCP) to guide the development of new technologies based on open technological platforms for the remote reading of water meters.
Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) provides the support for research and development services to be directed to specific needs. It is a unique instrument to foster competition for the development of a high quality product whilst providing an adapted answer to common needs and opening new markets for companies.
Carried out under Italian law between 2018 and 2021, the PCP will include a total of three phases: solution exploration and design, prototyping and field-testing.
Driving the development of new solutions for smart water metering data collection and management.
More information:
Website: smart-met.eu
Twitter: @SmartMet_PCP
Email: smart.met@oieau.fr
