South African electricity prices constantly rise. Political and economical representatives agree that a transparent electricity management system need to be in pace urgently.

This country is the biggest energy consumer on the African continent; therefore a high priority is given to undertake actions in getting such management system with transparent user profiles in place. The success of South African’s economy will depend on the implementation of reliable and affordable smart metering system solutions.

Mid 2011, the German based company, EVB energy solutions started in co-operation with the SA company RMS, Remote Metering Solutions, the development for a suitable and affordable Smart Metering solution, based on EVB’s support, knowhow and products.

In the first quarter of 2012 RMS has started to rollout the infrastructure in the Johannesburg area. The rollout will include existing and new developed housing areas as well as shopping malls. The smart meter solution include the installation of e-meters and data concentrator for the bundling and uploading the metering data towards the EVB server infrastructure and the Smart Meter middleware “Meterus”. The integration of water meters is under discussion for the moment. In 2012 more than 12.000 E-meters and about 440 data concentrators will be installed. RMS will be in charge to operate the complete infrastructure including billing management. All metering data will be concentrated and stored in Velbert, Germany at EVB headquarters and processed via the “Meterus” Middleware to make them available for RMS.