2009 Award Winners

Business Performance Endesa, Spain	Customer Excellence SEAS NVE, Denmark	Innovation Electronic Housekeeper, UK

Review European Utility Awards 2009

In the business performance category the winner was Endesa Distribución Eléctrica of Spain for its project Cervantes. The project involves the rollout of smart metering, based on parent company Enel's AMM system, to Endesa's 13 million customers. Among the functionalities incorporated in the system are a remote disconnect/connect, automatic network detection of meters and adaptation to topological changes in the grid, optimized PLC technology, and a future-proof concentrator design. Thanks to the synergies between Endesa and Enel, and the strong teamwork developed, an optimised technology solution has been obtained which is extremely cost efficient and competitive, reducing the implementation time of the project to 5 to 6 years – 3 years less than initially forecast and also 3 years less than the regulatory requirement.

In the customer excellence category the winner was SEAS-NV for its “Målerjagten” (Meter Hunt) project. The Danish energy company's project comprises a campaign based on a competition where customers submit monthly meter readings, via web or SMS, which are used as lots to win a monthly prize of DKK50,000 (US$9,900). The readings are also used to classify each contestant in an energy class, in order to raise awareness of their energy consumption, and based on the information provided the customers are given individualized consulting on how to reduce their consumption. Although running for only about nine months to date, participants in Målerjagten have reduced their consumption by an average 17% so far.

In the innovation category the winner was Electronic Housekeeper Aps of Denmark for its electronic housekeeper. Built on the idea of making the dream of the intelligent home available for everyone, the electronic housekeeper is a wireless console, designed for people looking for a way to make their home intelligent while saving energy, money, and CO2. The console enables the utility company to use private homes and offices for grid management, by flexible consumption and automatic power cut off for selected customer appliances (like electrical heaters) when frequency is low. In this way, the utility is willing to finance some of the costs of intelligent homes for end users and thereby stimulate their interest in grid management.

2008 Award Winners

Business Performance  Business Stream,UK	Customer Excellence RWE nPower, UK	Innovation  Utiliq, The Netherlands

 

2007 Award Winners

Business Performance Hanze University	Customer Excellence  Vaxjo Energi	Innovation Sentec

2006 Award Winners

Business Performance  EDF	Innovation ISA	Customer Excellence Sutton and East Surrey Water

 

2005 Award Winners

Business Performance Endesa	Customer Excellence Eneco Energie	Innovation Harrison Ltd.