This report provides Transforma Insights’ view on the Electricity Smart Meter IoT market found in the Transforma Insights Connected Things TAM forecast.
The transition from traditional electricity meters to smart meters is one of the biggest IoT initiatives worldwide. By 2033, there will be 2.1 billion electricity smart meter connections. This report examines the reasons for the increase in installations, including reducing energy consumption, a desire to reduce electricity thefts, enhancing load balancing capabilities, and growth in the use of renewable energy sources. Reducing dependence on nuclear energy and the greater demand for EV charging are likely to increase the use of renewables for energy and further drive the adoption of smart electricity meters. It also provides a detailed assessment of the progress of rollouts and the various communication technologies used across major geographies for these meters. Electricity smart meter rollout is a government-led initiative and with the installation of meters, consumers are provided added benefits such as subsidies on their electricity bill or refunds on using limited electricity during peak hours. Most of these rollouts supported by government regulations focus on providing incentives for deployment.
The report provides a detailed definition of the sector, analysis of market development and profiles of the key vendors in the space. It also provides a summary of the current status of adoption and Transforma Insights’ ten-year forecasts for the market. The forecasts include analysis of the number of IoT connections by geography, the technologies used (including splits by 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, LPWA, short range, satellite and others), as well as the revenue split between module, value-added connectivity and services. A full set of forecast data, including country-level forecasts, sector break-downs and public/private network splits, is available through the IoT Forecast tool.
The report examines key factors that are influencing the development of the market, including:
This section of the report discusses the two approaches to the rollout of smart electricity meters: the top-down (where a central authority is in charge of the rollout) and the bottom-up (where the Distribution System Operator or the energy supplier is in charge of the rollout). It also talks about the features, benefits, and nation-wise examples of both approaches.
This section explains how various governments have been the principal drivers behind the deployment of smart meters. It also mentions the countries where the market is not yet completely regulated (like South Africa and Pakistan) and the reasons behind the lack of adoption of smart meters (such as a lack of clear understanding and definitions).
In a tabular format, it then provides a list of regulatory stipulations on the rollout of smart meters across a variety of territories, such as the USA, Canada, Latin America, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, China, Taiwan, Europe, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, the UK, Denmark, France, Germany, Belgium, Portugal, Turkey, Japan, Australia, South Korea, India, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa, and Nigeria. For instance, in Latin America, the adoption of electricity smart meters has been overall limited, and the largest ongoing deployments are in Brazil and Mexico.
This section primarily focuses on the challenges associated with traditional meters (such as energy theft, errors in unmetered supplies, and conveyance errors) and discusses how the adoption of smart meters can deal with such challenges. For example, smart meters come with sensors capable of delivering real-time consumption data, which can be utilized to identify areas where theft is taking place in a grid.
It also mentions the additional benefits of smart meters, like providing consumers with detailed feedback on electricity usage, thereby encouraging them to adjust their habits to lower their electricity bills.
This section discusses how electric vehicles, heating systems, and smart appliances can be connected to smart meters to access pricing data, allowing consumers to take advantage when electricity rates are cheaper.
It also explains how the increasing adoption of electric vehicles, increasing dependence on renewable energy sources, a reduction in demand for nuclear power (coupled with a scarcity of natural gas resources), and the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine will indirectly encourage greater use of smart meters.
This section discusses the monetary benefits of half-hourly settlements over fixed prices (especially in countries like the UK). For instance, in 2011, a cost-benefit analysis in the UK showed an average saving of 2.8% for common households. It also talks about the countries that have found negative results, which may defer the deployment of smart electricity meters in those countries until the costs of deployment and maintenance are reduced or their benefits are improved.
This section focuses on the challenges that governments from around the world have faced when deploying, updating, and replacing smart electricity meters, mainly due to the expense involved in these processes. It also claims that such costs have to be paid either by the governments or local utilities, which may slow down their deployment, especially in less wealthy countries. It also lists some of the factors behind consumer opposition to their deployment (like concern about the potential health impact of introducing a producer of electromagnetic radiation in their homes).
This section of the report focuses on the communication technologies deployed in smart metering systems, including both wireless communication options and fixed wired connections. It also talks about the kind of technologies that will be used in future and their benefits (like consumers will have an online account or application where they can check their usage and understand how to better control their energy use).
In a tabular format, this section then charts the communication technologies that are used in electricity smart meters, across various geographies, including the US, China, Taiwan, France, Germany, the UK, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, UAE, and others.
The report also provides some examples of relevant IoT deployments in this application. For instance, Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) had planned to deploy 30 million smart meters by June 2021 and contracted ARM to implement smart meter infrastructure for remote meter reading and further evolve that into a smart grid infrastructure capable of load-balancing and Virtual Power Plant (VPP). The firm aims to achieve reduced development costs, faster time to market, total control of devices in the field and chip-to-cloud security.
The key vendors section lists some of the main providers of products and services related to the market such as Landis+Gyr, Itron, Elster, Schneider Electric, Iskraemeco, Kamstrup, Holley Metering, Aclara, and Siemens. The report provides profiles of the various vendors including aspects most relevant to this Application Group, such as product offerings, pricing, financial results, and technology.
In the market forecasts section, we provide a summary of the forecasts from the Transforma Insights IoT Forecast Database:
The report charts the growth in the number of devices which will grow from 1.1 billion in 2023 to 2.1 billion in 2033.
Transforma Insights forecasts are compiled on a country-by-country basis. This report includes a regional summary, showing splits between Australasia, Greater China, North America, Europe, Japan, Latin America, MENA, Russia & Central Asia, South East Asia, South Korea, India & South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Transforma Insights’ IoT forecasts include splits between the various connectivity technologies as follows: 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G mMTC, 5G non-mMTC, LPWA (non-mMTC), Satellite, Short Range, and Other.
This section discusses which technologies will be used in the electricity smart meters application group.
This part of the report discusses the market growth in terms of revenue (module revenue, service wrap revenue, and VAC revenue). Transforma Insights estimates that the revenue in the Electricity Smart Meters Application Group will grow at a CAGR of 7%.
