Oxford, U.K. --- (METERING.COM) --- February 3, 2012 -  Africa’s mobile communications revolution presents a promising new approach to improve the financial performance for water service providers, according to a new report from researchers at Oxford University.

With an annual financing gap to meet the African water supply and sanitation Millennium Development Goal of US$9 billion, mobile water payments also offer time and cost savings to water users, and increased customer loyalty for mobile network operators.

Melle, Belgium --- (METERING.COM) --- February 3, 2012 - Belgian grid operator Eandis and utility service company Infrax have selected Cuculus’ ZONOS platform with advanced metering management (AMM) functionality for a rollout of 61,000 smart meters.

The phase 2 pilot will see Eandis rollout up to 51,000 meters and Infrax 10,000 meters. Eandis has 4 million meters and Infrax one million meters already installed in the Belgian market.

San Francisco, CA, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- February 2, 2012 -  The California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) yesterday agreed to allow Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) customers to retain an analog meter if they don’t wish to have a wireless smart meter installed.

These customers will be assessed an initial set-up fee of $75 and a monthly charge of $10. For customers in the PUC's low income CARE program these charges will be reduced to an initial fee of $10 and a monthly charge of $5.

London, U.K. --- (METERING.COM) --- February 2, 2012 -  A new two-way IP data service targeting the growing global market for smart metering and other machine-to-machine communications, BGAN M2M, has been launched by mobile satellite communications provider Inmarsat.

BGAN M2M is intended as a low cost solution suitable for M2M applications that would typically send between 1 Mb and 50 Mb per terminal per month.

Baku, Azerbaijan --- (METERING.COM) --- February 2, 2012 - More than 400,000 gas smart payment meters are to be provided by Itron to Azerbaijan state gas company Azeri Gas Production Union, a part of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR).

The deployment follows an earlier project that included installing 250,000 smart payment meters in the capital city of Baku. This marks the start of the second phase of the project, which will cover the remainder of the country. The rollout plan gives Azerbaijan Republic the opportunity to capitalize on the benefits of smart payment technology throughout the entire country.

Brussels, Belgium --- (METERING.COM) --- February 1, 2012 - Customer participation in the electricity market is extremely important, and one way of increasing that participation is demand response, which is an area that can deliver benefits both to the customers and to electricity systems, the Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER) has identified.

In an Advice, following a consultation, on the take-off of a demand response market with smart meters in Europe, the CEER sets out four recommendations to enhance the implementation with household customers and small and medium sized businesses. To build customer trust the CEER recommends that service providers should aim to give customers appropriate information on offers, with the goal of creating customer awareness of how changes in lifestyle or occupancy can impact on household consumption patterns and therefore their final electricity bill.

Melbourne, Australia and Luton, U.K. --- (METERING.COM) --- February 1, 2012 - Australian water utility Wide Bay Water Corporation has selected Elster to supply V100 volumetric water meters and automated meter reading (AMR) technology over the next six months.

These meters, equipped with a wireless AMR system, will support WBWC's project to manage water resources more efficiently, provide greater control over water leakage and wastage, and provide accurate usage figures.

Washington, DC, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- January 31, 2012 - A number of the smart grid projects being funded through the Smart Grid Investment Grant (SGIG) program of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 do not have adequate cybersecurity requirements, according to the Department of Energy’s inspector general.

Guayaquil, Ecuador --- (METERING.COM) --- January 31, 2012 - Empresa Eléctrica Pública de Guayaquil has been using Cooper Power Systems CYME™ Power Engineering Analysis Software for Transmission Systems (PSAF) for more than a decade, and is now working actively to complete a project using the CYME CYMDIST solution for distribution analysis.

San Antonio, TX, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- January 30, 2012 -  Oracle has announced the ability to process more than one billion records and generate half million customer bills within an eight-hour nightly window using the Customer Care and Billing, Meter Data Management and Smart Grid Gateway systems, using a subset of data extracted from 30 billion interval meter reads, a volume level typical for a large utility.

Boulder, CO, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- January 30, 2012 - Tendril and the BMW Group Technology Office USA have announced a partnership to build out a demonstration smart energy home in Mountain View, Calif. to prepare for the rollout and integration of the new BMW ActiveE electric vehicle (EV).

The partnership will integrate the BMW ActiveE with the home area network via Tendril's cloud platform to provide managed charging.

Minnetonka, MN, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- January 30, 2012 - The ConnectPort® X2e for Smart Energy gateway has been introduced by Digi as a low cost, enhanced version of its ZigBee Smart Energy gateway.

The gateway connects ZigBee Smart Energy devices from a home area network (HAN) to an energy service provider via broadband. It offers additional memory and processing power for over the air updates of connected Smart Energy devices, making it easier for utilities and application partners to establish and maintain large Smart Energy device deployments.

San Antonio, TX, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- January 27, 2012 - There has been a 25 percent increase over last year in the number of utilities companies that have implemented smart grid technology, according to the Microsoft/OSIsoft Worldwide Utility Industry Survey for 2012.

Stockley Park, U.K. --- (METERING.COM) --- January 27, 2012 - Smart meters are helping to change the behavior of British households by enabling them to better manage and control their energy consumption, according to a new study from British Gas.

According to the company for its British Gas Smart Thinking Report more than 700 domestic users were surveyed, with the results showing real interest in the new technology. Almost half of the people surveyed (48 percent) said they use their smart energy monitors on a daily basis, and more than three-quarters (78 percent) said they used it at least once a week.

Gaithersburg, MD, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- January 27, 2012 - The U.S. Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) has issued an updated version of the Interoperability Process Reference Manual, setting out the processes for accreditation of test laboratories and certifying organizations for evaluation of smart grid products and for testing of the products.