Stockport company signs deal with British Gas

A STOCKPORT-BASED manufacturer of both electricty and smart metres has clinched a deal with British Gas.

Landis+Gyr was selected by the energy giant to support the UK’s first commercial-scale smart metre deployment in an energy-efficiency effort that could save consumers more than £200m in energy bills.

The Manchester office of law firm Hammonds has advised Landis+Gyr on the transaction and the deal was lead by partner Tom Bridgford.

He said: “This has been an exciting and pioneering project. The deal proved to be challenging because it is the first of its kind in the UK. The pressure was on to get it signed to enable work to start on the roll-out.”

The deal will see  British Gas deploy up to one million of Landis+Gyr’s ‘dual fuel’ electricity and gas smart meters along with the company’s touch screen in-home displays in UK customer homes.

This will mark one of the fastest, largest and most advanced smart meter deployments in Europe.

Under the deployment, which will precede the UK’s main smart metering rollout, consumers will be able to independently manage their energy consumption, cut their energy bills and protect the environment. A quarter of CO2 emissions in the UK come from homes.

In the UK, Landis+Gyr employs just under 500 people at manufacturing and R&D sites in Stockport and Peterborough, developing gas and electricity smart metering solutions to serve the entire Europe, Middle East and Africa market for the company. 

Cameron O’Reilly, chief executive of Landis+Gyr, said, “Our partnership with British Gas represents a major breakthrough for smart metering in the UK. 

“Together, we will pioneer the technical and practical standards that we hope will see every home and business in the country switch to smart metering within the next decade.  We are proud and pleased to have been selected for such an instrumental role in this major deployment.”