By Robert Clark | Jul 30, 2010
Asia’s business hubs Hong Kong and Singapore are known for their embrace of all kinds of new ICT, from smartphones to superfast broadband.
But when it comes to the adding smarts to the electric grid, progress is sluggish.
The only activity is in Singapore, where a government-led group is just reviewing responses to its Request For Proposals (RFP) for the rollout of a three-year pilot.
The pilot
announced by the Energy Market Authority (EMA) last December sought bids from Accenture, IBM, Logica and Siemens.
Backed by Singapore Power, research body A*Star, the Housing Development Board and other agencies, it envisages the IES pilot project seeks to test and evaluate new applications and technologies around a smart grid
An official said it was too early to say how the project would be and how it would be funded.
In Hong Kong neither of the two big utilities have plans to adopt smart meters for residential customers.
Hongkong Electric, a part of the Li Kashing-controlled Hutchison Whampoa Group, has installed 6,600 smart meters for “high-consumption” industrial users.
The company said it would consider expanding this to consumers, but to date has no concrete plans and has not surveyed customers.
The other utility, China Light and Power (CLP), said an emailed statement to Green Channel that it was “open-minded” about smart meters, and was currently working on network and substation automation.
But it said the government policy changes were needed to “incentivize end-users to monitor and reduce usage.”
