Drivers:
- Increasing demand for secure meter systems due to tamper & fraud issues.
- Growing support from governments in the form of tariffs and subsidies, policies, regulations, Mandates, and targets.
- Adoption and investment by countries for smart grid technology.
- Demand for insights and transparency into consumers’ power consumption to help reduce energy bills.
- Reduced operational expenses for utilities.
- Increasing adoption of smart meters due to their Benefits.
- Utilities growing need to provide a top-class customer experience.
Definition and Benefits:
Smart metering comprises an electronic power meter with full remote control, diagnostics, power peak, and consumption analysis, anti-tampering mechanisms, fault alarm, time-variable tariffs, and a variety of other features. All of the above functionalities are possible and compatible with future smart-grid protocols when using power-line communication (PLC) or other wired and wireless technologies to connect the meter to the service provider.
Benefits:
- Allows to manage consumer’s electricity consumption better during peak hours and save money.
- Reduces the amount of electricity utilities need to produce at maximum cost during peak hours.
- Limits the new capital investments for the utility to handle higher peak-hour demand.
- Smart electric meters provide near-real-time data on electricity consumption.
- Smart meters will eliminate predicted billing, allowing consumers to better budget by only being charged for the resource actually used.
- Smart meters will enable switching suppliers easier and faster in the future, making it easy to find the best pricing.
- Eliminates supplying meter readings by sending automated readings directly to the energy supplier, saving business time for other tasks.
- Smart meters can be set up to run in either a prepayment or credit mode.
Restraints:
- Global economy slowdown due to Covid-19 and natural calamities.
- Growing concerns of privacy for customers
- Lack of government support in some countries.
- Declining revenues of utilities impacting utility operating models and capital expenditure.
Recent Trends & Developments:
- In the United Kingdom, as part of a nationwide upgrade to the energy system, Smart meters are being installed by every energy supplier and some, such as ‘bulb’ for free.
- In August 2020, Badger Meter has announced the availability of a new metering-as-a-service program that includes end-to-end advanced metering deployments.
- In 2021, Several US utilities have obtained regulatory approval to proceed with smart metering and grid edge intelligence deployments across all or part of their service territories.
- In December 2020, Landis+Gyr announced partnering with Google Cloud to combine their leading capabilities in data analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning with Landis+Gyr’s leading expertise in smart metering and grid edge intelligence.
- The smart meter rollout in France is in full swing, with more than 31 million Linky smart electricity meters already installed and a further 11 million to be deployed until 2026 to Enedis, overseas territories, and medium utilities.
- In 2020, Switzerland’s leading energy utility, CKW partnered with Kamstrup A/S to enable digitalization, being the largest smart electricity metering project in Switzerland so far.
Opportunities:
- Analytic services and associated software.
- Markets for growth potential where governments mandate smart meters- USA, Uk, Europe, and the Asia Pacific.
- Smart meters 2nd wave deployment - UK, Italy, Sweden, New Zealand.
- subscription-based Smart metering as a service (SMaaS) - Germany, South Africa, Austria, New Zealand, Norway, and small utilities.
Supportive schemes and policies for smart meter installations:
Blackridge Research's smart electric meters market report provides insights into the current global and regional Global market demand scenario and its outlook.
This study offers a detailed analysis of various factors instrumental in affecting the smart electric meters market's growth. The study also comprehensively analyses the market based on the communication type of smart electric meter (Cellular network, radio frequency, and power line communication), on application (Industrial, Commercial, and Residential), and geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Rest of the world).
This report also includes the latest market trends, drivers and restraints, present and future opportunities, new projects, the global impact of Covid-19 on the smart electric meters market, and significant developments.
Further, the report will also provide smart electric meters market size, demand forecast, and key competitors in the market.