Important news from Wallonia: Circet, in collaboration with Infra Group and APK, won the contract to install more than one million digital meters in Walloon homes and businesses. Here are more details on the project by colleagues Stijn Baert (Head of Marketing & Sales), Arnauld Knapen (Business Developer Wallonia), Pieterjan Becuwe (Operations Manager) and Bruno Peten (Program Manager).
What does this new contract entail?
The Walloon network operators ORES and RESA – the Walloon counterparts of Fluvius – selected TEAPlus to install digital meters. TEAPlus is the joint venture between Circet, Infra Group and APK which already installs digital meters for Fluvius in Flanders.
“Together with our partners in this joint venture, we are now going to install more than one million digital electricity and gas meters throughout Wallonia,” says Pieterjan. “That's because the roll-out of digital meters has yet to get underway there, while this technology is already well established in Flanders.”
How did we win this deal?
Under the TEAPlus banner, we already have a lot of experience with installing digital meters in Flanders. “This gave our bid a great edge. Projects like this one show that we are not just a telecom player anymore, and that we are experiencing strong growth in energy infrastructure as well,” Stijn explains.
“In addition, our ISO 27001 and ISO 45001 certificates – quality labels for data security and safety respectively – were decisive for ORES and RESA,” Stijn continues. “Finally, our Service Cruiser software platform also helped tip the scales in our favour.”
Winning a project of this magnitude requires good collaboration between our teams. And we were also able to demonstrate that: “We started preparations for this project last summer already. Sales, IT, operations ... all made a strong contribution to our bid,” says Arnauld. “Congratulations to everyone who took part in this effort.”
What is the timeline for this project?
Installing more than one million digital meters will be a feat that will require many teams to work together smoothly. “Normally, we should start from the second half of this year,” says Bruno. “We then have 4 years – with the option to extend by another 2 years – to install the meters. Let's do this!”