Brazil to get a taste of Italy, energy-management-wise

The Italian company that brought smart energy meters and remote management for the smart-grid to Italy and Spain is going overseas and bringing its technology to Brazil.

Enel, with its Spanish subsidiary Endesa, is developing a pilot remote management project in Brazil, using the same metering technology that Endesa is installing in Spain. The pilot project will be implemented through Coelce, Endesa’s electricity distribution subsidiary operating in Brazil. With more than 3 million customers, Coelce sold more than 8,850 gigawatt-hours of power in 2010.

The goal of the Brazilian pilot project is to test Enel’s remote management system, which is based on the model already operating in Italy.

Brazil is the first country in Latin America to begin developing a regulatory framework for remote management. Coelce will be the first company in the region to use remote management technology for its residential customers.

Endesa’s remote management project in Spain will create a system enabling automated, remote management of all operations on the distribution network. It’s considered the first real step toward the creation of smart grids.

Endesa is also replacing old analogue metres with new digital metres: 13 million-plus is all.

Enel was the first company in the world to introduce remote energy management technology on a large scale, with more than 30 million smart electronic meters deployed in Italy between 2000 and 2005.