Barcelona, Spain --- (METERING.COM) --- October 12, 2009 - The winners of the European Utility Awards for 2009 were announced at the 11th Metering, Billing/CRM Europe last week.

In the business category the winner was Endesa Distribución Eléctrica for its project Cervantes. The project involves the rollout of smart metering, based on parent company Enel’s AMM system, to Endesa’s 13 million customers. Among the functionalities incorporated in the system are a remote disconnect/connect, automatic network detection of meters and adaptation to topological changes in the grid, optimized PLC technology, and a future-proof concentrator design. All of these have resulted in a significant reduction of investment and operational expenses and have enormously increased the deployment speed.

In the customer excellence category the winner was SEAS-NV for its “Meter Hunt” project. The Danish energy company’s project comprises a campaign based on a competition where customers submit monthly meter readings (via web or SMS), which are used as lots to win a monthly prize of DKK50,000 (US$9,900). The readings are also used to classify each contestant in an energy class, in order to raise awareness of their energy consumption, and based on the information provided the customers are given individualized consulting on how to reduce their consumption.

In the innovation category the winner was Electronic Housekeeper Aps for its electronic housekeeper. The electronic housekeeper is a wireless console, designed for people looking for a way to make their home intelligent while saving energy, money, and CO2. The console enables the utility company to use private homes and offices for grid management, by flexible consumption and automatic power cut off for selected customer appliances (like electrical heaters) when frequency is low. In this way, the utility is willing to finance some of the costs of intelligent homes for end users and thereby stimulate their interest in grid management.

The annual European Utility Awards are sponsored by Accenture.

The 11th Metering, Billing/CRM Europe took place in Barcelona, Spain from October 5-8, 2009.