The clouds are gathering around his competition Electricity Distribution Network Operator (DEDDIE) for a smart money project with a budget of over 1 billion euros. Swiss multinational Landis+Gear announced on Thursday its decision to “use all available legal remedies to reverse the decision to exclude her from the second stage of the competition”, implicitly but clearly announcing an appeal to the Council of Europe.

The expected development of the market puts the tender on an adventure similar to those that accompanied the first pilot tender for the installation of “smart meters” for more than seven years, which began in 2014 and completely derailed in May 2021. The Swiss company characterizes the exclusion from the tender as “unreasonable” and leaves open the possibility of suspending planned investments in our country.

The Swiss company leaves open the possibility of suspending investments in our country.

“As the only supplier with a manufacturing facility in Greece, we are particularly disappointed by the news of the dismissal of our appeal,” said Werner Lieberherr, CEO of Landis+Gyr Group AG. “In our bid, we have clearly stated that we will manufacture smart meters in Corinth, Greece, and therefore recent statements and comments in some media are misleading and inaccurate. Therefore, we will use all legal options available to us.” The Swiss company filed an appeal with the Unified Public Procurement Authority against the decision to block it. The appeal was considered on February 28 and rejected as Single Authority for Government Contracts (EADISY)reportedly accepted the exclusion criterion, namely that Landis+Gyr did not include a commitment in a single European contract document for a plant that would manufacture smart meters, although the company stated in its case that it would use Corinth. a factory that produces more than ten million electricity and gas meters annually, of which 75% is exported to Europe and 25% to the US and Asian markets.

“Our exclusion from the competition of our country at the pre-qualification stage is a source of great disappointment for us and, in our opinion, unreasonable. As a result, this has sparked a series of internal debates that have jeopardized our operations in Corinth and put a hold on further investment in plans already planned to expand our electricity and natural gas meter business, as well as the addition of a state-of-the-art Electric Vehicle Charger Factory – a business sector with huge growth prospects. ”, said Aristides Pappas, Managing Director of Landis+Gyr in Greece.

The DEDDIE side refuses to comment on the course of the competition, while it should be noted that until today it has not made an official announcement about the list of companies passing to the second stage of the competition. Of the 7 companies that showed interest, four investment schemes were qualified. It is the Spanish subsidiary of the leading American meter company Itron Spain SLU, as well as the Spanish ZIV Aplicaciones y Tecnologia SL, the Romanian subsidiary of the American meter company Elster Rometrics SRL (a member of the international Honeywell group), together with Intracom SA Telecom Solutions and Elster Gmbh , the Slovenian meter manufacturing company Iskraemeco dd, together with the French Oracle France SAS and the Greek Protasis AE, a joint venture with the French Sagemcom Energy & Telecom SAS, in which the group participates from the Greek side of Kopelousou.