Smart Meters to Surpass 300 Million by 2016

Wednesday, 11 August 2010 09:56

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A new report from Berg Insight concludes that the worldwide deployment of smart electricity meters will reach 302.5 million at the end of 2015, based on a compound annual growth rate of 31.1 percent between 2009 and 2015. During the next five years, penetration rates for smart metering technology are projected to more than double to nearly 50 percent in Europe and North America, while Asia-Pacific is projected to reach 25 percent by 2015, from less than one percent today. The report anticipates that growth will continue into the second half of this decade, with many markets approaching 100 percent penetration by 2020.

Berg Insight identifies some common drivers behind the smart metering advancements which include implementation of energy policies and regulations related to power conservation, renewable generation and the security of supply. Several European countries have passed legislation that requires nationwide rollouts before the end of this decade. In the United States, federal grants for smart grid projects are a major aspect of the Obama administration’s economic stimuli package. China’s State Grid Corporation and South Korea’s KEPCO have both announced their intentions to construct smart grids featuring smart meters before 2020.

Tobias Ryberg, Berg Insight Senior Analyst and author of the report, says, “Smart metering is now a globally accepted mature mainstream technology.  All over the world we can see how IT and telecommunication has transformed the metering industry from a business of mechanical devices and manual labor to an arena for state-of-the-art technology in everything from wireless networking to data warehousing and complex system integration.”

Ryberg also notes that the current rate of adoption facilitates transformation of the electricity sector where the access to detailed information in real-time will fundamentally change how power is generated, distributed, and consumed.

Berg Insight offers business intelligence to the telecom industry.