Itemised capital and operating cost for the recommended district pilot, with the indicative regional rollout shown for comparison. All figures in United States dollars, inclusive of freight, marine insurance, import duty, VAT and statutory levies.
An earlier version of this concept was priced at US$488,895 capital and US$24,500 per year operating, for 1,000 units. Review found that figure omitted hardware engineering entirely, understated software by more than half, priced live-line installation at a third of the real rate, and assumed a Free Zones duty exemption that is unlikely to apply to goods sold domestically.
The corrected figures are materially higher. Section 4 sets out the difference line by line. We would rather present a number that survives audit than win on one that does not.
150 instrumented transformers in one district, against 150 matched control transformers. This is the scope we recommend and the only one that produces evidence rather than assertion.
| Item | Description | Qty | Unit (USD) | Total (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HW-01 | GridWatch monitoring unit, landed IP66 enclosure, 3-phase metrology, 3× metering-class split-core CTs, insulation-piercing connectors, LTE modem with soldered eSIM, secure element, tamper sensors, surge protection and conformal coating. Unit price includes base build $255.00, sea freight and marine insurance $9.00, import duty $25.50, VAT/NHIL/GETFund/COVID $59.00, clearing and handling $4.50. | 150 | 353.00 | 52,950.00 |
| HW-02 | Hardware engineering, one-time Schematic and PCB design across three revisions, firmware development, EMC pre-compliance and test lab, NCA radio type approval, Ghana Standards Authority device approval, calibration rig with traceable reference, and environmental qualification including surge immunity to IEC 61000-4-5. | 1 | 165,000.00 | 165,000.00 |
| SW-01 | GridWatch platform, pilot scope Telemetry ingestion, fault detection and classification engine, condition diagnostics, Energy Commission console, field engineer application for Android and iOS, reliability computation, reporting and export, and independent security audit. Excludes commercial-loss analytics, which cannot be delivered on the current metering estate. | 1 | 120,000.00 | 120,000.00 |
| SV-01 | Live-line installation — blended rate Certified crew, insulated tooling and rated PPE, split-core CT and IPC fitment on energised low-voltage cable, per-phase calibration against a reference instrument, and device commissioning. No customer is disconnected at any point. Covers both mounting types. Pole-mounted units require elevated work and carry the higher rate; ground-mounted pad units inside compounds or cages are cheaper to fit but need an external antenna lead where the enclosure blocks signal. $220.00 is a blended figure pending the asset survey, which establishes the actual mix in the chosen district. | 150 | 220.00 | 33,000.00 |
| SV-02 | Asset survey and register capture Site visit per transformer to capture GPS position, nameplate rating, vector group, feeder parentage and condition baseline. Required because the existing asset register is not reliable enough to build on. | 150 | 65.00 | 9,750.00 |
| SV-03 | Workforce training and certification Five-day certification for the pilot crew and Commission engineers: arc-flash safety, live-line fitment, calibration procedure, application use and fault triage. Materials and assessment included. | 1 | 12,000.00 | 12,000.00 |
| SV-04 | Characterisation testing, HV cutout Controlled high-voltage fuse removal on representative transformer types under planned outage, with reference instrumentation, to establish the real back-feed voltage band. Without this the cutout detection threshold is unvalidated and cannot be used to dispatch a crew. | 1 | 28,000.00 | 28,000.00 |
| SV-05 | Independent evaluation Control-group design, statistical analysis plan, mid-term and final evaluation against the acceptance metrics. Performed independently so the results are usable by the Commission whatever they show. | 1 | 45,000.00 | 45,000.00 |
| SV-06 | Demonstration, scoping and handover documentation Live demonstration to the Commission and utilities, joint scoping workshop, architecture and operations documentation, and knowledge transfer sessions. | 1 | Complimentary | 0.00 |
| Subtotal before contingency | 465,700.00 | |||
| CTG-01 | Contingency, 25% First-of-kind hardware, cedi–dollar exposure on a dollar-priced import, and an installation rate not yet proven in the field. Held against the programme and released or returned at closeout. | 1 | 116,425.00 | 116,425.00 |
| TOTAL CAPITAL — DISTRICT PILOT | 582,125.00 |
| Item | Description | Pilot, 150 units | Rollout, 1,000 units |
|---|---|---|---|
| MA-01 | Cloud hosting and platform operation Managed database with high availability, ingestion and processing, API and console hosting, encrypted backups, threat monitoring. | 3,900.00 | 3,900.00 |
| MA-02 | Machine-to-machine connectivity Private APN data on soldered eSIMs, per unit per month, with carrier management. | 1,620.00 | 10,800.00 |
| MA-03 | Field failure replacement Replacement units and reinstallation at an assumed 4% annual failure rate. Lightning, tropical humidity and vandalism are the drivers; the real rate is measured on the pilot. | 2,850.00 | 19,000.00 |
| MA-04 | Software maintenance and security patching Platform updates, Android and iOS release cycles, dependency and operating-system security patching, defect correction. | 32,000.00 | 85,000.00 |
| MA-05 | Technical support Second and third line support with severity-based response, and on-call cover for critical platform incidents. | 18,000.00 | 40,000.00 |
| MA-06 | Annual recalibration sampling Reference verification on a statistical sample of the fleet, which is what keeps the accuracy claim defensible year on year. | 2,000.00 | 12,000.00 |
| TOTAL ANNUAL OPERATING | 60,370.00 | 170,700.00 |
Pilot operating cost over 18 months: approximately US$90,555. Combined with capital, the full pilot commitment is US$672,680.
Shown so the Commission can see the shape of the commitment beyond the pilot. Hardware engineering and platform development are one-time costs already incurred at pilot stage, so they do not repeat.
| Item | Description | Qty | Unit (USD) | Total (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HW-01 | Monitoring units, landedAs specified above, at 1,000-unit batch pricing. | 1,000 | 353.00 | 353,000.00 |
| HW-02 | Hardware engineeringOne-time; already delivered at pilot stage. | 1 | 165,000.00 | 165,000.00 |
| SW-01 | Platform, full scopeAdds outage-management integration, regulatory reporting at scale and multi-operator administration. | 1 | 265,000.00 | 265,000.00 |
| SV-01 | Live-line installationCertified crews, per pole. | 1,000 | 220.00 | 220,000.00 |
| SV-02 | Asset survey and register capturePer transformer. | 1,000 | 65.00 | 65,000.00 |
| SV-03 | Training, 50 engineersFive-day certification, multiple cohorts. | 1 | 28,000.00 | 28,000.00 |
| SV-07 | Regional depot and spares holdingDepot setup plus 5% spares (50 units) and an RMA process. | 1 | 18,000.00 | 18,000.00 |
| Subtotal before contingency | 1,114,000.00 | |||
| CTG-01 | Contingency, 20%Lower than pilot: hardware is proven and the installation rate is measured by this stage. | 1 | 222,800.00 | 222,800.00 |
| TOTAL CAPITAL — REGIONAL ROLLOUT | 1,336,800.00 |
Marginal cost per additional unit beyond this point is approximately US$766, comprising landed hardware, installation, survey and contingency. At 5,000 units total capital is approximately US$4.34 million, or about US$868 per unit once engineering and platform costs are spread.
Both columns are for 1,000 units, so the comparison is like for like.
| Line | Earlier quote | Corrected | Why it changed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardware, landed | 275,700 | 353,000 | Metering-class CTs rather than generic, surge protection and conformal coating added, and full duty and VAT rather than an assumed Free Zones exemption. |
| Hardware engineering | 0 | 165,000 | Entirely absent from the earlier quote. PCB design, firmware, EMC, type approval, calibration rig and environmental qualification are unavoidable and must be paid once. |
| Software | 106,250 | 265,000 | Realistic build for a security-audited platform with a mobile application and utility integration. The earlier figure also included a theft analytics engine that cannot be delivered. |
| Installation | 62,500 | 220,000 | $62.50 per pole does not cover a certified crew with insulated tooling and a vehicle. $220 is the realistic rate, to be tested by competitive local tender. |
| Asset survey | 0 | 65,000 | Absent. The existing register is not accurate enough to build on, and this must happen before installation. |
| Training | 0 | 28,000 | Offered free previously. Five days of certified safety training for 50 engineers has a real cost and pretending otherwise hides it in another line. |
| Depot and spares | 0 | 18,000 | Absent. A fleet with no spares holding cannot meet a response-time commitment. |
| Contingency | 44,445 | 222,800 | 10% raised to 20% for first-of-kind hardware and currency exposure. |
| TOTAL CAPITAL | 488,895 | 1,336,800 | 2.7× |
| ANNUAL OPERATING | 24,500 | 170,700 | 7.0× |
The earlier $24,500 covered little beyond cloud hosting. It did not fund software maintenance, a support desk, field failure replacement or annual recalibration. A contract signed at that figure could not have been performed, and the service-level penalties attached to it would have run against us from the first month.
Validity. 90 days from the date above. Indicative pending scoping; firm quotation within five working days of agreed scope.
Currency. United States dollars, because the electronics are imported and priced in dollars. Cedi equivalent fixed at the prevailing interbank rate on the date of firm quotation. Allocation of exchange-rate risk to be agreed before contract.
Payment milestones. Mobilisation on signature; second instalment on hardware build and platform deployment; third on completion of field installation; final retention released on acceptance against the metrics in Section 13 of the proposal.
Taxes and duties. Import duty, VAT, NHIL, GETFund and COVID levies are included at prevailing rates. Statutory changes between quotation and clearance are passed through at cost with documentary evidence.
Warranty. Twelve months on supplied hardware from installation, covering manufacturing defect. Excludes lightning strike, vandalism, third-party damage and consequential loss.
Exclusions. Customer metering, civil and structural work, network reinforcement, transformer replacement, oil laboratory analysis and enforcement action are outside this quotation. Section 16 of the proposal lists these in full.