Smart meters go live at Mdina

Mdina is the first town in Malta where smart meters have gone live, feeding remote consumption readings to Enemalta.

This was disclosed by Finance Minister Tonio Fenech when answering a number of supplementary questions by opposition MPs.

As the meter installation project progressed, a good number of faulty meters, some possibly tampered with, had already been discovered.

To the original PQ by Evarist Bartolo, he said that to date the smart meter project had cost €298,142 in consultancy fees. These included €210,000 to MITA for programme management services; €23,400 to Deloitte for business plan consultancy; €5,760 to Misco for Focus Groups; €39,982 to DSG Consulting for a change manager for the implementation of the IUBS; and €19,000 to KPMG, who had verified the arithmetical correctness of bills.

There had also been “other payments, according to need”, to Camilleri Preziosi for legal consultancy services.

Answering a question by Roderick Galdes, he said new “old” meters that had been installed only shortly before the smart meters project would have to be scrapped with the older ones.