GS Group announced the start-up of production of domestic electronic components for Russian smart meters. Production of the electronic components was rolled out by GS Group at its own centre for developing and manufacturing microelectronics GS Nanotech.
GS Group will be the first to launch non-volatile memory chips and communications protocol interface chips on the market. They will be available to customers as soon as quarter 4 of 2021, after certification as a domestic electronic components. Planned output by the end of the year is around 1M units. These components ensure functionality of meters regarding the monitoring of electricity usage, remote transfer of meter data to power engineers, as well as the remote controlling of voltage supply to consumers.
The start of mass production of microcontrollers for electricity meters is planned for quarter 1 of 2022 after development of the electricity meter based on the microcontroller and its certification as a domestic electronic components is complete. Use of a domestically produced electronic components will enable the electricity meter manufacturers to deliver as part of existing and future meters the necessary functionality to ensure the accuracy, timeliness, reliability and safety of transfer of data on resources consumed, as well as meeting current requirements regarding device localisation levels.
Fyodor Boyarkov Director of Production Development at GS Group
“Developing integrated microcircuits for electricity meters and putting them into mass production in just under a year is a fairly complex challenge, but thanks to the competences accumulated over many years by GS Nanotech in the development and manufacture of media chips and large-scale packaging of integrated microcircuits in metal-polymer housings, it is one we will meet successfully. We feel supported by both producers of Russian electricity meters who are looking forward to integrating domestic chips into their devices and by energy companies, who will be using these devices in their systems. By our combined efforts, we and other Russian microelectronics enterprises will meet the demand for a domestic electronic components in this area in full.”
GS Group has been delivering a project for the production of localised integrated solutions (sets of electronic components) for the creation of individual smart electricity meters since 2020. The set includes integrated microcircuits for various purposes: microcontrollers, communications protocol interface chips, and non-volatile memory chips. GS Nanotech’s capacity allows over 3m sets of electronic devices to be produced every year. The total amount invested in the project is over 500M roubles.
According to data from GS Group’s analytical centre, in Russia as a whole at various sites up to 80M smart electricity meters are due to be either replaced or primary installed. Meanwhile, the demand among energy companies for such devices is put at 5M units a year.