Building the Future of Smart Metering with El Sewedy Electrometer Group

El Sewedy Electrometer CEO explains how AI and hybrid communication tech are transforming smart metering in Egypt, cutting costs and improving customer experience.

In this interview, Emad El Sewedy, Chairman & CEO of El Sewedy Electrometer Group, says integrating artificial intelligence into utility operations isn’t optional, it’s essential. Speaking about the company’s smart metering projects in Egypt, he highlights how AI and hybrid communication technologies are enhancing customer service while reducing operational costs.  

Emad El Sewedy emphasises that AI adoption must “make business sense,” pointing to customer relationship management as a key area where smart systems can lower operational costs.

He says that by integrating AI into WhatsApp messaging and responding to billing or service requests, the customer experience can be enhanced and reduce costs.

He also expands on the company’s work in hybrid communication technology. Developed in collaboration with Iberdrola and Microchip, the combination of PLC (Power Line Communication) and RF (Radio Frequency) has enabled reliable smart metering even in noisy networks of urban Egypt.

El Sewedy notes that this technology allows for “half-hour load profiles capturing all the data 24 hours, with 100% success rate”, something previously impossible.

Highlighting the value of hybrid communication technologies, El Sewedy mentions the successful deployment and upgrade of PRIME-certified products, from PRIME 1.3 and PRIME 1.4 to the latest PRIME hybrid.

Watch the full interview to learn more about how El Sewedy Electrometer is reshaping smart metering and utility operations.

As smart grids continue to evolve, interoperability, scalability and long-term reliability remain critical success factors for utilities worldwide.

Within this context, PRIME Alliance has played a key role in enabling open, standards-based communication technologies that underpin the digital transformation of power distribution networks.

Established to promote the PRIME (PoweRline Intelligent Metering Evolution) specification, the Alliance brings together utilities, technology providers, semiconductor manufacturers and system integrators with a shared objective: ensuring interoperable and future-proof communication solutions for smart grids. Over the years, PRIME Alliance has evolved into a global ecosystem, supporting millions of deployed devices across Europe, Africa, Latin America or the Middle East.

A core activity of the Alliance is the maintenance and continuous evolution of the PRIME specification, which has become a recognised reference for narrowband power line communications in smart grid environments. Through dedicated technical working groups, PRIME Alliance ensures that the specification keeps pace with regulatory requirements, operational needs and emerging grid use cases. This ongoing work includes enhancements in robustness, performance and coexistence with other communication technologies operating within the low voltage network.

Another cornerstone of PRIME Alliance’s work is its certification and interoperability programme. By providing a structured framework for conformance and interoperability testing, the Alliance enables utilities to deploy multi-vendor smart grid infrastructures with confidence. Certified PRIME devices help reduce deployment risk, lower operational costs and preserve long term supplier flexibility.

Beyond technical development, PRIME Alliance actively promotes industry collaboration and knowledge sharing. The association participates in international events, technical workshops and standardisation initiatives, helping to align PRIME with broader industry trends such as grid digitalisation, automation and data-driven network operation.

Among its recent key achievements, PRIME Alliance has expanded the scope of PRIME to address increasingly complex communication environments. The introduction of hybrid PLC capabilities, enabling seamless operation across hybrid PLC and RF environments, represents a significant milestone for utilities operating in challenging network topologies. This hybrid approach improves coverage, resilience and deployment flexibility.

In parallel, PRIME Alliance has progressed the specification of broadband over power line (BPL) technologies, extending the applicability of PRIME beyond traditional narrowband use cases. The inclusion of BPL reflects the growing demand for higher data rates and more advanced smart grid applications.

Looking ahead, PRIME Alliance sees significant opportunities linked to the growing importance of grid flexibility. The increasing integration of distributed energy resources, electric vehicles and active consumer participation is driving demand for communication infrastructures capable of supporting dynamic, bidirectional data exchange.

These opportunities are accompanied by ongoing challenges related to cybersecurity, data privacy and regulatory alignment. PRIME Alliance continues to embed security-by-design principles and aims to remain a trusted foundation for interoperable and future-ready smart grids.

About PRIME Alliance

PRIME Alliance is an international, non-profit association promoting the PRIME open standard for power line communications in smart grids. It brings together utilities and technology providers to ensure interoperable, secure and future-proof communication solutions worldwide.

The UK’s transition to clean energy is accelerating with electric vehicles, heat pumps, rooftop solar, home batteries and smart appliances now part of everyday life.

This is a positive step for decarbonisation – but it also means the grid is being asked to support millions of devices switching on, exporting and interacting in ways it was never originally designed for.

At the same time, the surge in AI infrastructure is adding a new and fast-growing layer of demand. AI workloads consume significantly more electricity than traditional computing – well beyond the power required for everyday digital tasks such as document creation or web browsing. Even when data centres procure or generate their own supply, the wider network still experiences the cumulative impact, further tightening constraints across already stressed grid segments.

According to the National Energy System Operator (NESO), the UK currently has around 1.6GW of consumer-led flexibility – roughly the peak demand of one million homes. By 2030, this must rise to 10.3GW: a sixfold increase and enough flexible capacity to power every home in Greater London during peak hours.

This expansion is not optional. Without it, grid congestion will worsen, electrification will stall and system costs will rise.

Ofgem has already approved £698.8 million in new connections and £1.98 billion in reinforcement between 2023 and 2028. These investments vary across regions, reflecting differences in housing growth, electrification rates and renewable deployment.

Flexibility is already contributing. UK Power Networks estimates that smart flexibility services can permanently avoid around 5% of reinforcement costs, saving roughly £100 million.

But traditional reinforcement cannot keep up alone – especially given the global shortage of power transformers, which is extending delivery timelines and amplifying the need for grid strategies that reduce dependence on heavy equipment.

This is where a new approach – digital reinforcement – becomes essential.

What is digital reinforcement?

Traditional reinforcement means installing new cables, replacing transformers or upgrading substations. These measures remain essential – but they are expensive, slow and disruptive.

Digital reinforcement strengthens the grid through intelligence rather than hardware. It brings together three core capabilities:

• Real-time monitoring of substation and feeder loading;
• Instant control of distributed energy resources (DERs);
• Automated actions that prevent overloads without affecting consumers.

Imagine a neighbourhood where EV chargers are common. If most residents plug in at 6 p.m., the local transformer may face more demand than it can support. Instead of upgrading the substation, digital reinforcement slows EV charging slightly, shifts a heat pump cycle or trims solar export for a few minutes. Individually these actions are small; collectively they prevent overloads at a fraction of the cost.

How digital reinforcement works: The GridFlex example

Corinex GridFlex exemplifies this emerging approach. Its defining strength is its ability to deliver real-time intelligence and coordinated control directly at the grid edge, using the existing LV network as the communication pathway.

GridFlex brings monitoring, communication and control into a unified architecture:

• High resolution monitoring via continuous SNMP-based visibility across substations and feeders.
• Real-time telemetry using MQTT event streams that keep operators informed of device-level behaviour.
• Fast, synchronised coordination via multicast messaging that issues simultaneous control instructions across large groups of devices.
• Interoperable device integration with EV chargers, heat pumps and solar inverters through widely used industry protocols.
• Automated control logic that adjusts device behaviour immediately when constraints emerge.

Underpinning this is a communication layer – including broadband over powerline – that enables GridFlex to operate from within the LV network itself. This proximity to the grid edge allows for rapid, precise responses that match the speed at which local constraints develop.

The result is a digital control environment that allows operators to detect stress points as they form and coordinate corrective action across thousands of devices. Instead of reinforcement through physical upgrades, GridFlex enables reinforcement through intelligence – extending the life and usefulness of existing infrastructure.

Who benefits from digital reinforcement?

Cornwall Insight’s analysis highlights four groups positioned to benefit as this model scales:

1. Energy suppliers: British Gas, ScottishPower, EDF and E.ON reach millions of homes. With British Gas alone serving 7.5 million, suppliers can unlock substantial household flexibility through EV and heat-pump propositions – made far more effective when aligned with real-time local network conditions.
2. Aggregators: Companies such as Flexitricity, GridBeyond, ev.energy, and Enel X manage extensive portfolios of flexible assets. Many focus on optimisation rather than device level integration, making coordinated grid edge control a strong complement to their existing services.
3. Asset providers: SMS, Calisen and Macquarie manage smart meter estates that exceed 15 million devices. As they move further into flexibility services, digital reinforcement helps them activate and coordinate assets more efficiently and safely.
4. Developers: Developers like Bellway, Vistry and Sero increasingly design DER-ready homes and commercial properties. Digital reinforcement enables these developments to participate in local flexibility markets from day one.

Across all four groups, the need is universal: a real-time digital layer that links millions of devices to the actual conditions of the low-voltage network.

A smarter, more affordable path to net zero

Digital reinforcement is not a replacement for traditional grid investment – it makes that investment smarter, more targeted and more affordable. As the UK moves toward the future system operator and more granular local flexibility markets, DSOs will need new tools capable of managing millions of distributed devices in real time.

By adding intelligence at the grid edge, digital reinforcement allows the UK to unlock more capacity from the infrastructure it already has – supporting electrification while keeping both reinforcement costs and consumer impacts in check.

Driven by the need for greater efficiency, lower operational costs, reduced losses and improved customer experience, utilities must now turn to AI-powered, intelligent solutions. Unlike current smart meters that are preconfigured to act in limited cases or wait for human input, next generation intelligent systems use Agentic AI; an autonomous form of artificial intelligence capable of making decisions and executing them in real time.

Through Agentic AI, utilities can achieve autonomy across multiple domains. For example, in customer service, it listens to customer needs, resolves issues autonomously, and communicates solutions instantly. In communication networks, it dynamically switches between wired and wireless paths to ensure reliability. In loss management, it detects and corrects inefficiencies before they escalate. Together, these capabilities are transforming metering from a reactive process into an adaptive, self-optimising system that continuously improves reliability, efficiency and customer satisfaction.

As utilities move toward more autonomous intelligence, we at El Sewedy Electrometer Group (EMG) have been pioneering this transformation for years. Our collaboration with the PRIME Alliance on powerline and hybrid PLC+RF communication technologies has already laid the groundwork for adaptive systems with one of the world’s first real hybrid metering solutions using dynamic routing, with 500,000 smart meters being deployed in utilities in Alexandria and the North Nile Delta regions of Egypt as part of a JICA project.

By enabling devices to intelligently select the optimal communication channel, whether wired or wireless, based on real-time network conditions, hybrid communication represents the first step towards autonomy. Now, that same principle is being extended through AI, to drive the grid’s evolution towards adaptive intelligence.

Autonomous systems

Autonomous systems are already transforming customer service and after-sales care, delivering responsive and human-like support. Powered by Agentic AI, they integrate with CRM and meter data management systems to resolve billing disputes, explain consumption spikes, offer personalised energy saving recommendations, and even predict potential complaints by sending alerts when usage deviates from the normal.

Agentic AI can also enable customers to interact in real time with automated service agents at all hours of the day, whether by text or voice, to resolve issues, address questions and trigger maintenance actions. The result is a service that feels immediate, empathetic and proactive, offering seamless customer experience without human intervention.

In communication networks, Agentic AI enables a new level of autonomy and adaptability. It allows meters to dynamically select the most efficient wired or wireless communication paths in addition to allowing data concentrator units to switch between modulations in real time to find the most robust modulation and achieve the most effective signal-to-noise ratio and avoid interference.

Additionally, El Sewedy Electrometer, using AI, is working on giving meters the capability to send data through multiple channels. This self-adjusting capability ensures more reliable data transmission, minimises downtime and enhances the overall performance of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) systems, without requiring manual reconfiguration or operator input.

Agentic AI is also revolutionising loss management by detecting anomalies and inefficiencies in real time. It continuously analyses consumption data to identify irregularities such as energy theft, faulty meters, or technical losses long before they escalate.

Beyond detection, Agentic AI can autonomously prioritise and trigger corrective action, ensuring rapid resolution. Instead of flooding the network with constant data, it intelligently selects the information it needs and acts on it immediately. Through smart sampling and advanced pattern recognition, high accuracy can be achieved with minimal bandwidth.

For example, load profiles can be collected once or twice per day and data relating to losses can be collected once per month without overloading the network. The key lies in using machine learning and predictive analysis to proactively analyse data, pin-point anomalies, and take corrective action in record time.

Building on years of innovation in advanced metering and communication systems, El Sewedy EMG is translating these principles into practical grid intelligence. In collaboration with leading chip manufactures, this work extends intelligence to the microcontroller layer or the brain of any product, providing the secure processing power and responsiveness needed for edge-level decision-making. By laying this foundation, the same kind of adaptive reasoning can begin to scale across the wider utility ecosystem, from meters and substations to AMI management platforms.

The grid’s evolution has entered a new phase, in which we move beyond smart metering to truly autonomous intelligence. Enabled by Agentic AI, systems can now understand, decide and act in real time to improve efficiency, reduce losses and enhance customer experience. This marks the realisation of what digital transformation set in motion: an energy system that operates intelligently, adapts continuously, and advance’s reliability for generations to come.

Founded in 1998, El Sewedy Electrometer is a global leader in electricity, water and gas utility solutions. With 12 factories, four R&D centres and over 35 million meters sold in 50+ countries, it delivers smart, reliable, and innovative metering technology worldwide.

New Official Version of the PRIME Specifications: PRIME Specs v1.4+

We’re excited to share that the PRIME Technical Working Group has officially released the latest version of the PRIME Specifications — PRIME Specs v1.4+ (20250917). This update brings together all the most recent enhancements, ensuring PRIME continues to provide robust and interoperable solutions for Smart Grid communications.

This specification defines a comprehensive narrowband data transmission system over electrical power lines, designed to support complexity-effective communication for modern Smart Grid applications. In addition to power line communication (PLC), it now includes RF data transmission capabilities, expanding PRIME’s applicability to hybrid communication scenarios.

Written from the transmitter’s perspective, this specification ensures that devices from different vendors can seamlessly interoperate while supporting diverse implementations. Its design emphasizes reliability, efficiency, and flexibility, reinforcing PRIME’s role as a leading communication standard for smart metering and grid digitalization.

This release represents a significant step forward in advancing PRIME technology, integrating the latest technical improvements to meet the evolving needs of the Smart Grid ecosystem.

The full PRIME Specs v1.4+ (20250917) document is now available in the ActiveCollab platform for members.  

Microchip’s smart energy solutions for AMI 2.0

• Cybersecurity management with keys, passwords, and certificates
• Support for plug & play DCs
• Advanced meter supervision
• Integration of transformer monitoring cards.