Smart grid revenue in China will surpass $15 billion a year by 2020

USA: China is in the midst of its latest national development strategy, better known as the 12th Five-Year Guideline, which will continue through 2015.

One of the Guideline’s primary goals is "strengthening the construction of [the] smart grid." With the support of the government-owned State Grid Corporation of China, as well as many provinces and cities, this effort is rapidly progressing. According to a recent report from Navigant Research, annual revenue from smart grid deployments in China will reach $15.4 billion by 2020.

“The area of strongest smart grid growth in China will be transmission upgrades, anticipated to reach more than $72 billion in revenue by 2020 on a cumulative basis,” says Bob Lockhart, senior research analyst with Navigant Research. “Overall, smart grid development in China will generate $127 billion in cumulative revenue from 2012 to 2020.”

One primary objective of smart grid planners in China, according to the report, is to help address the country’s imbalanced energy supply. Coal remains the primary source of power generation, and 76 percent of China’s coal resources are located in Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Xinjiang, and other northern and western regions.

However, the country’s energy consumption needs are mainly concentrated in the more industrialized economies in the eastern and southern regions.