Global smart meter shipments pass 51 million for six months of 2013

Global smart meter shipments pass 51 million for six months of 2013

A new tracker report from Navigant Research states that worldwide smart meter shipments for the first six months of 2013 reached 51.4 million.

While the overall smart grid industry has continued to expand over the last 18 months, in North America the first wave of smart meter deployments has crested as government-funded programs wind down.  Many large North American utilities that instituted smart grid upgrades over the past few years have completed their smart meter rollouts, and are now pursuing greater efficiency and reliability through data analytics and IT improvements.  In other developed countries, however, major utilities are still in the early phases of smart meter deployments.

“The pace of smart meter deployments in North America continues to slow, as smart metering projects that had been fueled by U.S. federal stimulus money come to an end,” said Neil Strother, senior research analyst with Navigant Research.  “At the same time, smart meter projects in Europe, particularly in France, are poised to accelerate in coming quarters, while in Asia Pacific, China is aggressively rolling out smart meters and Japan is moving closer to large-scale deployments.”

The ‘Smart Grid Deployment Tracker 3Q13’ report suggests that no other country is likely to come close to China’s pace of deployments over the next few years, even as the country also faces an overall slowdown in its economy.  The number of smart meter shipments there increased by 31.2 percent from 4Q 2012 to 1Q 2013, according to the report.  Smart meters are an important part of the country’s bid to modernize its infrastructure, and it is evident that the leadership is determined to push ahead.  Navigant Research says that the company expects this metering juggernaut will maintain this pace over the next few years.

The report, “Smart Grid Deployment Tracker 3Q13”, provides an analysis of worldwide utility smart grid and smart meter programs updated for the first half of 2013.  It tracks data related to global customer endpoints, meter manufacturers, advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) communications vendors, systems integrators, and meter data management (MDM) vendors.  The report also includes a tactical examination of the technologies, timeframes, and vendor selections for AMI and smart grid utility deployments across the world, along with vendor selection share analysis for North America.