The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has taken a step forward in its plan to install 53 million smart metres to every household and small business across Great Britain by 2020, by announcing the companies that have been awarded the four contracts, worth a total £2.4 billion, to help run the supporting infrastructure.
On Wednesday the DECC revealed that Capita PLC, Telefonica UK, Arqiva, CGI IT UK, and Gemserv had all been awarded contracts.
Capita PLC was confirmed as the winner of the £175 million Data and Communications Company Licence, charged with processing and managing the data that was read by the smart metres.
Telefonica UK and Arqiva were awarded the Communications Service Provider (CSP) licenses for the country, dealing with the communications between smart metres and central data hubs. Telefonica will hold the licences for all metres within the South of England and Central regions (including the Midlands, East Anglia, and Wales), worth £1.5 billion. Arqiva will be awarded the £625 million license for the North region, which includes the North of England and Scotland.
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David Plumb, the digital and new business director at Telefonica UK, said to businessGreen that "Telefonica is extremely proud to have been selected by DECC as a preferred bidder for the UK smart meter implementation programme. It's a huge endorsement of cellular as the right communications technology and of our vision for smart meters to be the foundation of a smarter energy future for the UK."
CGI IT UK was given the Data Service Provider licence, worth £75 million, and will operate all the systems that are used to send the messages between the smart metres and the energy utilities.
Finally Gemserv was awarded the £10 million Smart Energy Code Administrator and Secretariot contract, giving them the job of governing all regulations pertaining to the use of smart metres across the entire country, including the guidelines on privacy and data protection issues.
The DECC said that all of the contracts will be officially confirmed at the beginning of next month.
By. Joao Peixe of Oilprice.com
Joao is a writer for Oilprice.com More
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