E-world 2011: T-City project reveals that quick rollout of electronic meters pays off

* Comprehensive rollout reduces costs.
* Between Euro 15 and Euro 50 are covered by additional added value.


Energy suppliers will benefit significantly more by a quick rollout of electronic meters as opposed to a step-by-step process by the target year 2020. This finding was reported by Deutsche Telekom and Technische Werke Friedrichshafen (TWF) in T-City. Both companies anticipate investment costs on an average of Euro15 per meter per year by 2020 for a complete upgrade in Friedrichshafen by 2012. The number more than triples to almost Euro 50 for an upgrade driven by demand alone by 2020.

“So it is clear,” says Stefan Söchtig, Managing Director of Technische Werke Friedrichshafen, project partner of Deutsche Telekom in T-City Friedrichshafen, “a comprehensive rollout reduces specific costs.” Comprehensive availability generates added value more quickly. It also makes sense economically because there is no investment backlog. Such a backlog would lead to a shortage of consulting and IT services offered by providers shortly before the ten year period is up, when all households in Europe must be equipped with such a meter. Consumers would have to indirectly pay for this in the form of charges for electricity and gas"

“The findings from Friedrichshafen have a fundamental effect on every German city, even if the numbers look a little different from case to case,” said Gabriele Riedmann de Trinidad, head of the Group’s new energy business area at Telekom. “In order to intelligently counterbalance the generation of electricity versus consumption, energy suppliers depend on a comprehensive overview of the situation, and as quickly as possible.”

Switching the energy industry from fossil fuels to renewable resources presents the electricity network with new challenges. The goal is to have a network that can handle these requirements automatically (smart grid). This in turn is based on the knowledge of how much energy will be fed into the network or taken from it where and when. Electronic meters deliver this data base via intelligent information and communication technology (smart metering).

About Deutsche Telekom AG
Deutsche Telekom is one of the world’s leading integrated telecommunications companies, with over 129 million mobile customers, around 37 million fixed-network lines and approximately 16 million broadband lines (as of September 30, 2010). The Group provides fixed network, mobile communications, Internet and IPTV products and services for consumers and ICT solutions for business and corporate customers. Deutsche Telekom is present in around 50 countries and has over 250,000 employees worldwide. The Group generated revenue of EUR 64.6 billion in the 2009 financial year – over half of it outside Germany (as of December 31, 2009).