This report provides Transforma Insights’ view on the use of IoT in the management and operation of smart grids. This comprises electricity, gas, water, and sewage infrastructure.
The transition from traditional to smart grid operations is a significant IoT initiative transforming the supply of all three utilities (water, electricity, and gas) worldwide. In 2035, there will be 157 million grid operation devices. This report examines the reasons behind the increasing adoption of smart grids, modernisation of traditional grids, and automation of distribution systems, substations, and power regulation stations. The report also assesses the management of infrastructure, use cases, and example deployments by vendors across the three utilities.
Electricity smart grid monitoring is vital for the successful implementation of distributed energy resources, load balancing and microgeneration. Electricity grids also leverage artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, and big data for load forecasting and to prevent energy losses in the system. Climate change, increasing demand for electricity, and the use of alternative energy sources (such as renewables) are the key reasons driving smart electricity grid operations.
In contrast, the use of IoT monitoring and management in smart water grids is less developed. However, it is becoming vital as it deals with multiple issues related to water scarcity, losses, droughts, floods, and reduced water security.
Gas smart grids are crucial in reducing carbon emissions, improving energy independence, and detecting gas leakages and faults. These grids also promote the use of more sustainable natural gas alternatives such as biogas, biomethane, and hydrogen.
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 breakdowns and public/private network splits, is available through the IoT Forecast tool.
This section of the report first argues that Grid Operations is primarily adopted due to the considerable improvements these projects bring, including two-way exchange of data, that allows remote monitoring and maintenance of grids. It then says that each type of smart grid (electricity, water, and gas) has significant benefits. To elucidate further, Water smart grids can detect leaks, understand water flow, manage water resources, and provide alternative water sources for off-grid communities. It then also charts their challenges, including reluctance shown by grid operators towards their adoption, since grid operations often require collaboration between asset owners, manufacturers, service providers, and government officials. It also claims that owing to greater efficiency and benefits, smart electricity grids are more common than smart water and gas grids.
The report examines key factors that are influencing the development of the market, including:
This section of the report begins with an explanation of the features of smart electricity grids (like enabling two-way flow of electricity), and benefits, including significant improvement in efficiency. It then focuses on other drivers of the market, including the increasing dependence on renewable energy sources (especially in the developing world) and microgeneration. In this context, it defines how it is beneficial, like allowing customers to reduce drawing electricity from the grid.
It further highlights the role of decentralised grids in improving utility resilience during large-scale outages. Traditional electricity grids are highly vulnerable to extreme weather events, which are expected to intensify due to climate change, increasing the risk of system failures. In contrast, microgrids can automatically reroute power transmission to maintain continuous service until faults are resolved, enabling faster recovery and greater grid reliability.
It further explores how decreasing reliance on nuclear energy (with developed countries like Germany planning to gradually phase it out – primarily due to the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011), the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia (which has forced the European countries to limit their gas import from Russia), Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz following conflict with Israel and the US in early 2026, and the growing adoption of electric vehicles (since they increase the load on existing electricity grids due to EV charging) will result in greater adoption of electricity smart grids.
It also discusses how both vehicle and non-vehicle VPPs (virtual power plants) will become an increasingly important part of smart grids. It further talks about the features of VPPs like enabling real-time shifting of residential, commercial, and industrial power loads. It then talks about a few challenges that may affect the adoption of electricity smart grids, including disruptions of grids caused by hackers. To cite an instance, in December 2025, coordinated cyberattacks targeted Poland’s decentralised energy infrastructure, affecting over 30 wind and solar farms and a CHP plant during extreme winter weather.
Last, it gives a table, in which smart electricity grid regulations across major geographies around the world have been described in great detail, including the US, Canada, China, Europe, Austria, the UK, France, Italy, Sweden, Australia, South Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia, Thailand, Indonesia, India, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the UAE. Case in point, in 2016, France invested EUR8 billion (USD9.25 billion) in smart electricity, gas and water grids in the country and in 2025-2026, in collaboration with Enedis, the country shifted from smart grid pilots to industrial-scale implementation.
This section of the report discusses the benefits of smart water grids (such as enabling greater control of the distribution network) and the issues that conventional water systems often face, like low operating efficiency.
It then talks about the fairly critical water scarcity stage that the world is heading towards, and explains how smart grids can deal with this issue (such as in leak detection – which can avoid contamination of fresh water) and prove to be helpful during catastrophes such as floods and droughts (since these grids have automated valve operations that can then shut valves in the affected areas to prevent flooding, further damage, water loss, or spreading of contaminated water).
In a tabular format, it then charts some examples of water smart grids and their benefits across various geographies, including Australia, Singapore, and South Korea. For example, South Korea launched the Smart Water Grid Research Group (SWGRG) in 2012, investing USD800 million in smart water grid R&D and planning an additional USD10 billion during 2022–2025 to expand and modernise water infrastructure. By early 2026, the initiative had evolved from research-focused activities to large-scale nationwide deployment aimed at addressing water scarcity, driven by drought and climate change.
This section begins with the benefits of gas smart grids (like remote surveillance of installations to detect any malfunctions in the distribution network) and explains why their deployment is limited on a global scale (especially in many Asian and African countries like India, Pakistan, and many parts of China).
In a tabular format, it then talks about some gas smart grid projects across countries like Italy and India. For instance, in Italy, Italgas is digitising its gas distribution network into a smart gas grid using sensors, automation, and advanced analytics for real-time monitoring and control. The company aims to digitise around 90% of its network between 2024 and 2026 to improve safety, efficiency, and resilience.
This section of the report gives some examples of relevant IoT deployments in this application group, including the municipality of The Hague and grid operator Stedin collaborating to develop and deploy a smart electricity grid along the coast of Scheveningen and DTE Energy installing smart grid technology to achieve optimised power transmission.
The key vendors section lists some of the main providers of products and services related to the grid operations market, such as Landis+Gyr, Hitachi Energy (formerly Hitachi ABB Power Grids), Cisco, Itron, Siemens, GE Vernova, and Schneider Electric. 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 Grid Operations devices, which will grow from 74.9 million in 2025 to 157 million in 2035.
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 grid operations 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 Grid Operations Application Group will grow at a CAGR of 11%.
