energy climate change and the environment: CASE STUDY: ITALY

In 2006, Ericsson won a contract to provide an Advanced Metering Management solution for Acea, Italy. Acea’s smart metering service uses Ericsson’s cutting-edge technology and service center to monitor electricity usage behavior, saving costs and putting electricity consumers in the driver’s seat.

By better communicating power consumption, smart meters can raise energy awareness among end-users, helping to instill climate-smart behavior. They deliver better financial control, too, as electricity consumers are charged only for what they actually use.

Ericsson’s service center supplies Acea with a web-enabled interface to facilitate travel-free meter management and reading, reducing costs and environmental emissions. All electricity service provisioning procedures are handled through the service center, where end-user consumption patterns can be modeled and even fraud detected. We extend our service to all customers – large and small – saving them expensive investment in infrastructure.

In future we hope to apply our modular remote management solution to other utilities such as gas and water, expand our service to new regions and facilitate individual monitoring and control of energy-hungry devices to reduce consumption. Smart meters pave the way for smart grids, where electricity loads can be distributed in real-time, helping to achieve a balanced supply of energy.