Over the past year, growth in the market was driven strongly by government stimulus funding, which helped accelerate the speed at which projects were deployed, especially in the United States. While the speed of market adoption in the United States and EMEA has driven recent growth, looking forward, IDC Energy Insights forecasts that adoption in Europe and Asia/Pacific, mainly China, will act as the primary catalyst for market growth for the next five-10 years.
"The bubble of opportunity for smart meter and communications vendors to capitalize on the expected growth of this market is now," said Ryan Reith, program manager, IDC Energy Insights Tracker products. "Recent data from our Smart Meter Tracker research program clearly shows that both governments and vendors, including IT powerhouses like HP and IBM, will drive the deployment of smart meters and smart grid initiatives worldwide. We expect this space to quickly move from 5-7 strong vendors today to a competitive landscape of regional manufacturers competing for high-profile contracts in emerging markets.”
Market penetration of smart meters is widely considered to be a key enabler of the smart grid.
"These smart meter deployments represent the first wave of smart grid investment by utility companies worldwide," said Rick Nicholson, group vice president, IDC Energy Insights. "Once the smart meters and communication networks are in place, we expect to see additional investment on the customer side of the meter in home energy management and smart building technologies as well as on the utility side of the meter in distribution management and distribution automation."
The Worldwide Quarterly Smart Meter Tracker also identifies top vendors in the market and ranks them by market share based on shipments.
Top 5 Vendors, North American Shipments, 2010
Source: IDC Energy Insights Worldwide Quarterly Smart Meter Tracker.Additional vendor data reveals:
* Top vendors of communications modules in North America include Itron, Silver Spring Networks, Sensus, Landis+Gyr, Elster, Alcara, and Trilliant.
* In EMEA, the top five smart meter vendors for 2010 shipments include Itron, Enel, Landis+Gyr, Echelon, Iskraemeco.
According to IDC Energy Insights, smart meters are defined as solid state electric meters with integrated two-way communications capabilities. Smart meters support multiple wireless and power line communications technologies and enable a range of energy efficiency and demand response applications.
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