LSIS inks $52 million deal in Iraq
Kim Jong-han, right, head of LSIS's smart grid business division, poses with Waffi Muhammed Almayahi, head of the Ministry of Energy in Iraq, after the Korean company signed a contract at a hotel in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, to supply its AMI solutions across Iraq. / Courtesy of LSIS
By Kim Yoo-chul
LSIS, a local leader in industrial applications, said Wednesday that it has signed a $52 million deal with the Iraqi government to supply its patented advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) solutions in various parts of Iraq.
The deal is the largest of a single AMI bidding for an international scale. The latest achievement shoots up the company’s total business dealings in Iraq to $500 million since 2011, it said in a statement.
Upon the agreement, LSIS will build 19 AMI centers across the Middle East country.
All of them support LSIS-developed "smart grid" technologies that include meter data management, billing and customer relation management, said the statement.
The AMI solution is considered as the core component in smart grid technology. It is architecture for automated, two-way communication between a smart utility meter with an IP address and a utility company, said experts.
The main goal of an AMI is to provide utility companies with real-time data about power consumption and allow customers to make informed choices about energy usage based on the price at the time of use, according to LSIS officials.
LSIS plans to supply 110,000 "smart meters" to major power stations in Baghdad and households to help them experience the latest electricity solutions based on smart grids.
A smart meter is an electronic device that records consumption of electric energy in intervals of an hour or less.
"The latest achievement means that LSIS can supply integrated electricity solutions in all related areas other than power development in Iraq," said spokesman Kim Bong-kyu.
LSIS has been consistent in beefing up its operations across Iraq in recent years by focusing on power plant construction.
LSIS is the first non-European company that has advanced Iraq's electricity infrastructure market. Iraq, which suffers from an acute power shortage, hopes to at least double its power generation capacity, by implementing smart grid technologies, said Kim.
Smart grid is a generic label for the application of computer intelligence and networking abilities to a dumb electricity distribution system.
Smart grid initiatives seek to improve operations, maintenance and planning by making sure that each component of the electric grid can both 'talk' and 'listen,' said officials.
Such stellar performance by LSIS in Iraq has been mostly led by its vice chairman and CEO Koo Ja-kyun's commitment for trust-building with Iraqi government officials.
"For the bidding, our CEO Koo directly handled presentations in Iraq. As a gesture to show respect and trust, he showed our commitment to his counterpart, impressing Iraq's government officials," said the official. LSIS is operating smart grid businesses in Jeju.
In 2013, overseas revenue accounted for 40 percent out of the total annual revenue. It's eyeing Africa, Europe, CIS, the Middle East, Japan and Russia to diversify its revenue channels.