KUWAIT CITY —

Millions of Kuwait’s residents and organizations will be able to benefit from a digital experience when it comes to electricity and water services, thanks to an innovative smart meters partnership announced on Tuesday by the Ministry of Electricity and Water.

As part of the partnership with leading global technology companies, the Ministry of Electricity and Water have started deploying the smart meters that will reach, by the end of the project, a total of 800,000 electrical meters and 300,000 water meters to homes and organizations across the country, helping to meet the New Kuwait Vision 2035 goals of effective governance.

Smart meter sensors will transmit water and electricity data on Zain’s networks to the Ministry’s digital core. As a result, the Ministry, residents, and organizations will be able to access real-time utilities usage and billing data, running on the SAP HANA in-memory platform.

Utilities providers worldwide are heavily investing in smart meters, with the global smart meters market set to grow by 54 percent to USD 20 billion by 2022, according to Markets and Markets.

“Kuwait’s residents expect to interact with their utilities providers as quickly and easily as any private sector company,” said Dr. Meshan Alotaibi, Assistant Undersecretary of Consumer Affairs at the Ministry of Electricity and Water in Kuwait. “By partnering with global technology companies, real-time utilities usage and billing will help our customers to save time and enhance our utilities maintenance and sustainability, all in line with Kuwait National Development Plan’s smart government goals.”

By running on a digital core, the Ministry can enable customers to pay bills online and via mobile apps, alert customers if their utilities usage spikes, and “gamify” the experience to encourage more sustainable utilities usage. The Ministry can also contact customers in case of utilities emergencies.

“Digital energy networks and smart meters are transforming utilities providers around the world, with the Kuwait Ministry of Electricity and Water demonstrating leadership in developing next-generation energy infrastructure,” said Ahmed Al-Faifi, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, SAP Middle East North. “We’re exchanging global best practices in smart utilities for the Ministry to have a 360-degree customer view, for more efficient utilities maintenance, transmission, and distribution.” Oliver Wyman are the business consultants with Ericsson being the systems integrators for Kuwait’s smart meter program. The project also involves more than 15 global technology vendors providing different parts of the overall solution. — SG