The energy landscape is evolving, and with it comes the transformation of utility services through the integration of the Internet of Things (IoT). Smart metering applications have emerged as a cornerstone of this change, revolutionizing the way energy consumption is monitored and managed. In this article, we will explore the pivotal role of IoT in smart metering, its key applications, benefits, challenges, and the promising future it holds for efficient resource management.

The IoT Revolution in Smart Metering

Smart metering represents a shift from traditional utility services to digital, data-driven systems. IoT is a key enabler in this transition, facilitating the collection, analysis, and management of energy consumption data in real time.

Key Applications of IoT in Smart Metering

1. Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI)

IoT technology forms the backbone of Advanced Metering Infrastructure, enabling the remote reading of utility meters. This includes electricity, water, and gas meters. Smart meters equipped with communication modules relay data to utility providers without the need for manual meter readings.

2. Real-Time Monitoring

IoT allows for real-time monitoring of energy consumption patterns. Consumers and utility providers can track usage patterns, detect anomalies, and make timely decisions based on this data.

3. Demand Response

IoT plays a crucial role in demand response programs. Utilities can remotely adjust energy consumption for specific appliances or entire households during peak demand periods. This helps balance the load on the grid and reduces the risk of blackouts.

4. Billing Accuracy

Smart metering applications ensure accurate billing based on real consumption data rather than estimates. This promotes transparency and minimizes billing disputes.

5. Environmental Sustainability

IoT in smart metering supports sustainability initiatives by monitoring and managing resource consumption. This reduces energy waste and promotes responsible energy use.

6. Prepaid Utility Services

IoT-enabled meters can be used for prepaid utility services. Consumers can prepay for energy, and the meter system will automatically disconnect the service when the prepaid balance is depleted.

7. Remote Disconnect and Reconnect

Utility providers can remotely disconnect and reconnect service, eliminating the need for physical interventions and improving operational efficiency.

8. Energy Analytics

IoT in smart metering applications provides valuable data for energy analytics. Utilities and consumers can gain insights into consumption patterns, identify areas for improvement, and make informed decisions about energy use.

Benefits of IoT in Smart Metering

The integration of IoT in smart metering offers numerous advantages:

1. Improved Accuracy

Smart meters equipped with IoT technology provide precise data, eliminating estimation errors in billing.

2. Enhanced Efficiency

IoT-enabled smart metering applications reduce the need for manual meter readings, streamlining the process and freeing up resources for other tasks.

3. Cost Savings

The efficient use of resources and real-time data analysis leads to cost savings for both consumers and utility providers.

4. Reduced Energy Waste

IoT technology enables better monitoring and management of energy use, leading to reduced energy waste and more sustainable consumption.

5. Demand Management

IoT supports demand management by allowing utilities to adjust consumption during peak periods, ensuring the stability of the grid.

6. Enhanced Customer Experience

Real-time monitoring and transparency in billing improve the customer experience by putting consumers in control of their energy use.

7. Sustainability

IoT in smart metering is aligned with sustainability goals by promoting responsible energy use and environmental conservation.

Challenges and Considerations

While IoT in smart metering applications offers numerous benefits, it also poses challenges and considerations:

1. Data Security and Privacy

Collecting and transmitting sensitive consumption data raise concerns about data security and privacy. Robust security measures must be in place to protect consumer information.

2. Data Transmission

Reliable data transmission is crucial for accurate readings and analysis. Ensuring that IoT devices are connected and functioning correctly is essential.

3. Compatibility

IoT devices and systems must be compatible and standardized to ensure seamless data exchange and integration. Common protocols and standards are necessary for achieving this.

4. Regulatory Compliance

Smart metering applications must adhere to regulatory requirements, particularly regarding data protection, billing accuracy, and service disconnection protocols.

5. Consumer Engagement

Effective implementation requires consumer education and engagement to ensure that consumers understand the benefits and are comfortable with the technology.

The Future of IoT in Smart Metering

As technology continues to advance, the future of IoT in smart metering looks promising. Here are some trends and developments to watch for:

1. Blockchain Technology

Blockchain can enhance the security and integrity of smart metering data, ensuring data accuracy and privacy.

2. AI and Machine Learning

AI and machine learning will be used to analyze vast amounts of consumption data, providing insights into patterns and optimizing energy use.

3. Edge Computing

Edge computing will enable data processing closer to the source, reducing latency and ensuring real-time monitoring and response.

4. Energy Storage Integration

IoT-enabled smart metering will integrate with energy storage solutions, allowing consumers to optimize their use of renewable energy sources and reduce dependence on the grid.

5. Electric Vehicle Charging

Smart metering will support electric vehicle charging infrastructure, enabling convenient and efficient charging for electric vehicles.

Conclusion

The Internet of Things is transforming smart metering, offering precise data collection, enhanced efficiency, and sustainability. Challenges related to data security, compatibility, and consumer engagement must be addressed to ensure that the benefits of IoT in smart metering applications are fully realized.

As IoT technology continues to evolve, it will remain a driving force in the utility sector, offering a glimpse into a future where energy consumption is more transparent, efficient, and sustainable, ultimately benefitting both consumers and the environment.

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WaterMeter Corp, in collaboration with WND Mexico and UnaBiz, is pleased to announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to revolutionise water management in Mexico.

This strategic alliance aims to deploy 1 million water meters with Sigfox 0G technology throughout Mexico over the next 10 years, offering innovative solutions for accurate, efficient, and sustainable measurement of water, gas and electricity for the benefit of communities and the environment.

Empowering Water Management with Sigfox 0G Technology

WaterMeter Corp has forged a high-impact alliance with WND Mexico and UnaBiz to introduce 1 million water measurement solutions based on Sigfox 0G technology in Mexico. Leveraging WND’s 0G Network, this collaboration will facilitate the efficient monitoring and management of water resources.

WND Mexico: Facilitating Connectivity Without Borders

As the operator of the 0G Network in Mexico, WND Mexico is committed to providing extensive coverage crucial to the successful deployment of water metering solutions powered by Sigfox 0G technology across the country. This alliance reinforces WND Mexico’s dedication to supporting innovative IoT solutions.

UnaBiz: Pioneers in the Future of Water Management

As the owner of Sigfox 0G technology, UnaBiz guarantees the continuity and longevity of the network and services in Mexico for the next 15 years. With a strong track record of connecting more than 2 million gas and water meters worldwide through the global 0G network, UnaBiz brings unparalleled experience to this transformative collaboration.

WaterMeter Corp

Committed to Sustainability and Efficiency, WaterMeter Corp, an expert in water measurement solutions, confidently embraces Sigfox 0G technology because of its ability to communicate equipment in a dispersed or sectorised way without the need to install concentrator antennas, repeaters or gateways on public poles. This decision underscores its commitment to providing cost-effective and sustainable water metering solutions for municipalities in Mexico.

A Shared Vision for Sustainable Water Management

This alliance between WaterMeter Corp, WND Mexico, and UnaBiz is based on a shared long-term business vision. Recognising the critical importance of security, stability, and continuity in the utility market, the trio aims to redefine water measurement in Mexico and beyond.

The fundamental objective is to multiply success stories based on projects with successful investment returns; UnaBiz, WND and WaterMeter Corp are willing to revolutionise the administration and management of water, gas, and electricity with cutting-edge technology.

Currently, the 0G network covers more than 60% of the national population with the commitment to deploy in a few days. After the success of the first stage applied to horizontal and vertical condominiums nationwide, the second step has been called: “essence the IoT technology for everyone, everywhere”.

Marco Mendoza, CEO of WaterMeter Corp:
“Our customers expect water metering solutions that meet their basic needs: accounting for 100% of water, gas or electricity effectively (day, week or month), with cost-effective and operationally practical solutions, and that fit their implementation budgets. This is precisely why we are committed to the Sigfox 0G technology, which allows us to read meters remotely cost-effectively, predictably, and extremely energy-efficiently. Together with WND Mexico and UnaBiz, we will connect millions of water meters in Mexico.”

Daniel Philippe Guevara, CEO of WND Mexico:
“We are excited to partner with WaterMeter Corp (certified in IoT Network for utilities with Sigfox 0G technology) and UnaBiz to pave the way to a smarter and more sustainable Mexico. As the operator of Mexico’s 0G Network, WND Mexico is fully dedicated to providing solid coverage essential for deploying IoT solutions powered by Sigfox 0G technology, including water metering. We share a long-term vision with WaterMeter Corp, recognising the importance of safety, stability, and continuity in the utility market. We hope to transform the smart water metering landscape with 1 million connected water meters over the next 10 years.”

Henri Bong, CEO and Co-founder of UnaBiz:
“At UnaBiz, we are committed to leveraging our experience as owners of Sigfox 0G technology to ensure the continuity and durability of the network and services in Mexico for the next 15 years. With a proven track record of connecting more than 2.6 million meters around the world through the Sigfox 0G network, we are confident that, together with WaterMeter Corp, we will deliver water metering solutions that will help Mexican municipalities address the challenges of water scarcity, non-technical losses, and water leaks.”

“With a long-term business vision, our goal is to modernise the water management system in Mexico, promote water conservation and ensure the country’s sustainable and efficient use of water resources.”

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A new research report from the IoT analyst firm Berg Insight reveals that the penetration of smart electricity meters in Latin America^* reached 6.2 percent in 2022.

The installed base of smart electricity meters is forecasted to grow at an impressive compound annual growth rate of 21.7 percent during 2022–2028 to reach a total of 38.4 million units at the end of the forecast period, up from around 11.7 million units in 2022.

The smart metering market in Latin America is becoming increasingly interesting for a variety of smart meter players, as a number of utilities across the region are increasing their investments in AMI infrastructure. Over the next six years, the penetration rate of smart meters in Latin America’s by far largest market Brazil will increase from a mere 5.7 percent in 2022 to 21.5 percent in 2028. Brazil and Mexico will account for close to 80 percent of the total smart meter shipments during the forecast period.

Mattias Carlsson, IoT Analyst at Berg Insight, said:

“The number of meter installations in Latin America will continue to grow in the coming years and will be driven by the expansion of ongoing smart metering projects and new major projects. Besides the major markets Brazil and Mexico, countries like Colombia and Peru will grow their share of annual shipment volumes from around 4 percent in 2022 to over 16 percent by 2028. Colombia for example is forecasted to increase annual shipment volumes tenfold, whereas Peru will increase annual shipment volumes sixteenfold during the forecast period.”

According to the newly released study, yearly shipments of smart electricity meters in Latin America will grow from around 1.9 million units in 2022 to over 6.1 million in 2028. This makes Latin America one of the fastest growing smart metering markets worldwide.

The use cases in Latin America include remote meter reading, fault detection, distribution automation and measuring power quality.

Mr. Carlsson concluded:

“As Latin America is poised for significant growth in the coming years, the race has begun between the top meter vendors to gain market share in the region. To date, Chinese smart meter vendors have achieved significant success in Latin America. One key contributing factor is their ability to offer competitive pricing, a crucial aspect for the price-sensitive utilities operating in the region.”

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A new research report from the IoT analyst firm Berg Insight reveals that the penetration of smart electricity meters in North America reached 74 percent in 2021.

Overall, the installed base of smart electricity meters will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 4.8 percent during 2021–2027 to reach a total of 173.4 million units at the end of the forecast period. Over the next six years, the penetration of smart meters in the US will increase to reach a level of 93 percent while the respective figure for the more advanced Canadian market will be slightly higher at 94 percent.

Mattias Carlsson, IoT Analyst at Berg Insight, said:

“First-wave deployments will continue to grow in the coming years and will be driven by the launch of major new projects by late adopters in the Northeastern US and Eastern Canada. Meanwhile, second-wave rollouts for early adopters are now also ramping up and will grow their share of annual shipment volumes from around 12 percent in 2021 to around 75 percent by 2027.”

According to the study, yearly shipments of smart electricity meters in North America will grow from 10.7 million units in 2021 to 17.3 million units in 2027. The Covid-19 pandemic had a notable impact on deployments during 2020 with a year-over-year decrease of around 13 percent in annual shipment volumes. The market has since experienced an increase in shipments and the number of yearly shipments is expected to peak in 2024 at 18.4 million units and thereafter slightly decrease to a level of 17 million units until the end of the forecast period.

Alongside the increase in replacement smart meter projects, the development of smart metering technology in the North American market has in the last couple of years shifted focus to serving new demands beyond smart metering. The utilities are now looking to leverage their existing network canopies for a wider array of smart city applications while also trying to figure out how to cope with the integration of the rapidly increasing number of electric vehicles and distributed energy resources into the grid infrastructure.

“The race has begun between the top vendors to develop and successfully commercialize the most attractive use cases for second-wave smart metering technology. Besides increased computing power and edge analytics capabilities that enable a new set of benefits, utilities are more and more looking to integrate multiple smart city applications into a single solution”, concluded Mr. Carlsson.

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Sequans Communications S.A. announced that Ubiik, a leading global Industrial IoT solutions provider with a proven track record in large scale deployments, is using its Monarch 2 GM02S LTE-M/NB-IoT module as a new connectivity solution in Ubiik’s rapidly expanding AMI (advanced metering infrastructure) network.

Ubiik has built a dedicated network for electricity AMI in Taiwan where it is the leading AMI provider to Taiwan Power Company (Taipower). Ubiik’s AMI solution with Weightless LPWAN connectivity that delivers more than 120-million-meter readings daily in Taiwan, has proven to be cost-effective and scalable for the digitalization of electricity meter reading and billing in Taiwan and other countries around the world. WeightlessTM LPWAN is ideally complemented by LTE-M/NB-IoT and allows Ubiik to serve a wider range of AMI deployment scenarios.

“We selected Sequans Monarch 2 GM02S module as the basis for our next generation of LTE communication modules for smart electricity meters because its advanced security features and integrated SIM help us advance our leadership in the industry,” said Tien-haw Peng, Founder and CEO of Ubiik. “As a vertical AMI solution provider offering our industry leading network, head end system, and O&M platform, we are dedicated to remaining at the forefront of AMI in Taiwan and worldwide, and Sequans, with its best-in-class Monarch 2 technology and excellent customer support, is helping us do that.”

Ubiik is using Sequans Monarch 2 technology to build FAN (field area network) modules for DLMS/COSEM electricity meters that will be used to complement the company’s current AMI offering. The new Monarch 2-powered modules also leverage Monarch 2’s ultra-low power consumption capability, which enables Ubiik to expand its service offering beyond electricity to other utility segments that use battery-powered meters.

Georges Karam, Sequans CEO, said:

“Ubiik has already built one of the largest LPWAN networks for electricity AMI in the world and we are pleased to be able to support them in their next phase of development with our Monarch 2 technology.”

“Ubiik has been highly successful in their quest to be the leading AMI vendor, and we are excited to see our technology connecting their next generation of smart meters.”

Ubiik is using Sequans’ second-generation LTE-M/NB-IoT module, Monarch 2 GM02S, that delivers ultra-low power consumption and a very high level of security. Monarch 2 GM02S is the world’s only cellular IoT module supporting an EAL5+ secure enclave for integrated SIM (ieUICC) capability that is compliant with GSMA standards. The module also supports a single rail power supply starting at 2.2 V, the lowest level in the industry, allowing for better efficiency of the internal power management unit, further reducing power consumption, and lowering battery and BOM cost. For full product details, visit Sequans’ Monarch 2 GM02S web page.

Ubiik has already deployed hundreds of thousands of smart electricity meters in Taiwan and Japan, and its vertical AMI solution is now expanding to markets in the US, India, Middle East, and the ASEAN countries.

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After water and gas meters, LoRaWAN® is now available for smart electricity meters.

This is made possible thanks to SCHC compression and fragmentation (IETF RFC 8724). This new standard technology initiated by the co-founders of Acklio is central to their software offering. SCHC allows the communication of devices using IP-based protocols over LPWAN networks. It thus enables high value-added use cases on constrained IoT networks. Among them is DLMS/COSEM (IEC 62056, EN13757-1), the global standard for smart energy metering which new profile for LoRaWAN leverages SCHC as an adaptation layer.

As an outcome of its collaboration with Acklio, Kaifa introduces the first electricity meters running over the LoRaWAN protocol available on the market. By doing so, it completes the bundle of connectivities already available to the range of meters 1500m (M-BUS, PLC, NB-IoT, PSTN/GSM, GPRS, 3G, 4G…). Low-power, low-cost, and easy to deploy, LoRaWAN is emerging as an excellent connectivity option for the advanced metering infrastructures (AMI) to provide utility companies with real-time data about power consumption. A global market representing millions of smart meters with LoRaWAN deployed by 2025, and with enormous growth potential in emerging markets in the short term.

LeTao He, Vice President of Kaifa:
“Utilities are beginning to look at LoRaWAN, primarily to fill in gaps in coverage of existing deployments, and later to provide the primary connectivity to an entire network of meters. We chose Acklio to ensure full compliance with the new standard communication profile. It guarantees our meters with full interoperability with the global ecosystem of DLMS/COSEM solutions. Moreover, by completing the integration in just few weeks, working with Acklio allowed us to bring the product to market in record time!”

Acklio’s SCHC stack allows the conversion of existing DLMS meters in just a few days. This gives meter manufacturers the unique opportunity to migrate their product lines to LoRaWAN in record time. In addition, the SCHC implementation by Acklio also benefits network management. It allows to increase the density of meters on a network, while using the security mechanisms of DLMS at scale – reducing the total cost of ownership while ensuring reliability.

Alexander Pelov, CEO of Acklio:
“Acklio SCHC-based solutions are already operational with a dozen customers worldwide. Since the announcement of the new DLMS over LoRaWAN profile for meter manufacturers, the demand for our SCHC stack is accelerating. In parallel, we offer LoRaWAN operators a solution that simplifies deployments and improve the radio technology scalability for the metering industry.”

Remi Demerlé, Marketing Director smart utilities at Semtech:

“Semtech welcomes this first integration of the new official profile of DLMS over LoRaWAN. It is a landmark demonstrating that LoRaWAN now represents a key technology to connect the smart electricity metering industry”.

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The market disruptions due to Covid-19 pandemic will result in a 25% Year on Year (YoY) decrease in annual smart meter shipments in 2020.

Consequently, smart meter YoY revenue will contract by 31% (US$3.3 billion) to reach US$7.39 billion, finds global tech market advisory firm, ABI Research. However, smart meter shipments and revenues will bounce back in 2021 with a 36% YoY growth in annual shipments and revenues exceeding US$9.5 Billion.

“As energy and water utilities prioritize their business operations, most utilities have temporarily deferred smart meter installations and have re-allocated resources to field service operations to ensure continuity of services to its end customers,” explains Adarsh Krishnan, Principal Analyst at ABI Research.

“Meter installation delays have also been driven by service providers and utilities complying with government guidelines on social distancing. That said, utilities that have already initiated smart meter installation programs are expected to immediately resume those installations as soon as government restrictions are eased.”

In 2020, shipments of smart electricity meters will witness the sharpest contraction with nearly 30% YoY decrease in annual shipments followed by YoY decrease in smart water and gas meters at 19% and 5% respectively. Regionally, smart meter shipments will decline the most in Europe, followed by Asia Pacific and North America. In 2019, Asia Pacific region was the largest market for smart electricity meters, where China alone accounted for nearly 40% of the global shipments.

“The pandemic exacerbated slowing shipment growth in China where the penetration of smart electricity meters reached nearly 70% of households by the end of 2019. The next phase of rollouts in China are expected to be much slower as utilities target households in semi-urban and rural regions,” says Krishnan.

Regionally, the pandemic will affect smart meters revenues the most in APAC followed by Europe and North America as revenue shrinks by 34%, 31%, and 30% respectively. Additionally, smart meter price erosion has accelerated due to greater availability of lower cost smart meters further depressing OEMs revenues.

Krishnan concludes:

“As utilities resume their smart meter implementation programs by 2H 2020 in many regions, smart meter revenues are expected to bounce back to double-digit revenue growth in 2021.”

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Solutions from Elmeasure and ClodPi track and report usage data in real time for precise billing and efficient utilities.

Semtech Corporation announced that Elmeasure India Pvt. Ltd. (Elmeasure)¹ and ClodPi Labs (ClodPi)², developed a new LoRa-based prepaid energy metering solution.

This new line of prepaid smart meters tracks and reports usage data in real time for precise billing and reduced energy waste in utility applications.

“Semtech’s LoRa devices provide the ideal platform for smart energy management and give real advantages over traditional solutions,” said Sam Cherian, Chairman at Elmeasure. “LoRa devices deliver reliable, real-time data for customers to track both usage rates and meter operation.”

“Elmeasure and ClodPi’s innovative platform also allows customers to manage multiple meter solutions together, including those for water and gas, for smarter overall energy monitoring with reduced operating cost.”

“The LoRaWAN protocol enables the robust long range networks necessary to connect many metering applications for simple and efficient management,” said Karthi Ganesan, Founder and CTO at ClodPi. “LoRa devices and the LoRaWAN protocol are leading technologies for IoT and offer the proven capacity to accelerate the development of devices and networking applications today. The consistent and secure connectivity provided by LoRaWAN allows customers to reap the rewards of bringing their utility applications to the Cloud and help receive a quick return on investment.”

Elmeasure and ClodPi’s LoRa-based prepaid meters monitor energy use in real time, and provide users alerts through email or text message when abnormalities, including rate spikes or meter tampering, occur. Additionally, the solutions allow the integration and monitoring of smart meters for gas and water under the same platform for aggregate viewing and management.

By providing consistent, accurate data on usage, these prepaid smart meters enable customers to budget and stay in control of energy use and waste, saving on monthly bills and reducing environmental impact.

“As more and more utilities and facilities aim to help their end users to improve their energy and water usage, and have better control and monitoring, there is a direct advantage for Elmeasure to provide them an end-to-end solution easier to deploy and operate with their IoT smart devices based on Semtech’s LoRa devices and the LoRaWAN protocol,” said Rémi Demerlé, Director of Vertical Marketing for Utilities in Semtech’s Wireless and Sensing Products Group.

“Elmeasure and ClodPi capitalized on LoRa devices’ proven feature set to accelerate its development and push metering products to market that bring compelling advantages for sustainable, cost-effective energy use.”

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Telekom Austria Group M2M and bsf IT-Solutions have today announced a new partnership, committed to replacing conventional electric meters of numerous power grid operators with smart meters.

• In a joint project, Telekom Austria Group M2M and bsf IT-Solutions will replace conventional electric meters of numerous power grid operators with smart meters.
• bsf IT-Solutions goes for first ready-for-use Austrian Smart Metering system, which meets all legal requirements of the European Union and the Austrian regulatory authority E-Control.
• Power grid operators get fully integrated and secured Smart Metering system, including roll-out solution of Telekom Austria Group M2M thus making energy consumption more transparent for end-consumers.

Bsf IT-Solutions will deliver a ready-for-use fully integrated and secured smart metering system for 23 grid operators with a total of 35,000 customer power systems in Austria.

Telekom Austria Group is the leading telecom operator in Austria with extensive know-how and hands-on experiences in the area of smart metering roll-out. In 2013, the company started Austria’s first smart metering project jointly with E-Werk Wüster in Ybbs in Lower Austria in line with the Austrian current legal requirements.

bsf IT-Solutions provides billing systems and IT solutions for power grid operators which are the perfect addition to the current smart metering portfolio of Telekom Austria Group M2M. These include, in addition to the smart metering systems of the company’s partners Kamstrup and Kaifa (Österreich Zähler), a centralized operated Meter Data Management solution of the German market leader Görlitz as well as the transmission of data via A1 high-performance communications network.

Bernd Liebscher, Managing Director Telekom Austria Group M2M, said about the new partnership:
“We are delighted to be able to jointly achieve with bsf IT-Solutions the next smart metering roll-outs in Austria. Our portfolio encompasses all relevant modules ranging from the provision of the smart metering technology and the central IT systems for Meter Data Management up to the transmission of data.”

Franz Fichtinger, Managing Director at bsf IT-Solutions GmbH, said:

“As a software manufacturer for grid operators and energy suppliers, we are showing with this project that we are able to considerably simplify the automatic data exchange between billing system and meter data management, as well as the administration of basic data such as electric power systems, meter points, metering devices and tariff schemes etc. on a single platform.”

“This partnership will also enable a more efficient processing of orders with a corresponding APP as well as service rollout and daily operations. This allows grid operators to save both money and resources. For the implementation of our solution, we have chosen Telekom Austria Group M2M as dependable partner in the area of data security, project management and smart meter infrastructure.”

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According to a new report from the research firm Berg Insight, 40 percent of all gas customers in Europe will have smart gas meters by 2020.

At the end of 2014, there were 2.5 million smart gas meters in the EU28+2 area, corresponding to a penetration rate of around 2 percent. By 2020, the installed base is projected to reach 49.0 million units. The increase will mainly be driven by nationwide rollouts in France, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK. In early 2015, the Netherlands will become the first European country to reach 1 million units installed as the Dutch utilities start the mass-deployment of smart meters. At the end of the year, Berg Insight also expects that massive installations will get underway in Italy and France. Earlier this year, the French national gas distribution network operator GrDF placed orders for a total of 11 million smart gas meters that will be deployed until 2020. GrDF and several leading gas network operators in Italy intend to use 169 MHz radio technology as the communication platform for their solutions, while smart electricity meters will be used as local communication hubs in the UK and the Netherlands.

While the smart gas meter rollouts are largely proceeding according to plan in the countries mentioned, the UK is facing a more difficult situation. Following the announcement that the country’s centralised data and communications system will not become operational before the end of 2016, Berg Insight expects that the mass-rollout of smart meters will not begin before 2017. As a consequence of the delay, the official target that the rollout should be completed by 2020 seems unattainable.

Tobias Ryberg, Senior Analyst, Berg Insight and author of the report, says:

“We are fully convinced that the UK smart metering project will eventually come to its conclusion, but the multitude of challenges arising from such a complex undertaking require considerable time to resolve. If there is one thing that can be learned from a decade of smart metering projects in Europe, it is that they get delayed.”

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The 1.8 billion unit global electricity metering market is undergoing a shift from legacy to smart metering technologies.

Higher value smart meters will boost the global market from its current $9bn annual size to $26.8bn per year by 2024, according to a new dataset published today by Northeast Group, LLC.

According to Ben Gardner, president of Northeast Group:

“Smart meters – or advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) – will create a higher value market over the next decade. These two-way communicating meters make up a key segment of the broader machine-to-machine (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT) markets.”

“They typically cost between $105 to more than $250 per endpoint, depending on the country. This compares with $25 or less for many legacy meters.”

By 2024, there will be an installed base of nearly 1.1bn smart residential meters worldwide, or 57% market penetration. The top countries by value over the next decade will be the United States, Japan, China, Brazil, India, UK, France, Germany, Russia and Mexico. The AMI market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 22% compared with a much more modest 1.8% for the overall electricity metering market. Legacy metering will decline at a rate of 7.2% per year throughout the decade. Additionally, commercial and industrial electricity meters will be worth $3.1bn per year by 2024.

Geographically, South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East will have the highest AMI growth rates over the decade. The lowest growth rates will be seen in Europe, Oceania and North America due to already existing installed bases of AMI meters.

Metering vendors, communications providers and semiconductor companies are positioning themselves to succeed in this large global market. Telecom operators are also eyeing the opportunities created by smart meters. According to Northeast Group’s forecasts, by 2024, 115m smart meters will operate using cellular communications. This will add M2M data revenues for telecom operators looking for new markets to boost stagnating revenues.

More info on Northeast Group’s Global Electricity Metering Market report: www.northeast-group.com

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Landis+Gyr, the global leader in energy management solutions for utilities, has chosen Ericsson to provide smart meter reading and related field operations as a service for Landis+Gyr’s utility customers in Finland.

For Ericsson, this is a breakthrough deal in the Finnish energy sector that underlines the company’s commitment to using ICT to meet the needs of the utilities industry.

To date, Landis+Gyr has delivered more than one million smart meters to multiple Finnish energy companies – the equivalent of delivering a smart meter to every third Finnish household in a country with approximately 3.2 million metering points. Ericsson will provide smart meter reading as a service for more than 700,000 of these meters, starting from October 1, 2014. As part of the contract, 13 Landis+Gyr employees based in Jyväskylä, Finland, will join Ericsson from the same date. Landis+Gyr remains responsible for the relationship with its customers.

Ari Tolonen, Managing Director at Landis+Gyr Finland, says:
“This cooperation ensures strong expertise and resources for the smart metering services market in Finland. Ericsson has a long track record in delivering managed services, and a strong commitment to business development in the energy sector. Together we will be able to provide Landis+Gyr’s utility customers in Finland with an ever-evolving, future-proof services portfolio.”

Charlotta Sund, Head of Ericsson’s Region Northern Europe and Central Asia, says:

“The utility industry is one of the most connected in Finland as there is a smart meter for virtually every home in the country. With our expertise in connectivity and managed services and our strategic focus on the energy sector, we can support Landis+Gyr and its smart meter customers in making the best out of the opportunities that connectivity brings.”

Currently, 98 percent of Finland’s households are connected to smart meters. This makes the country a leader in Europe in smart residential metering.
The evolution of smart meter solutions and grids is a priority in several countries, including many within the European Union and the US. This process will eventually create smart energy networks that manage a huge amount of data, creating opportunities for efficient grid and consumption management and seamless integration of locally produced renewable energy.
The evolution of the energy infrastructure, from one-way energy grids to communicating smart energy networks, will enable more efficient management of energy resources and empower customers with the ability to control their energy usage far more efficiently.

Summary:

• Ericsson chosen by Landis+Gyr to deliver smart meter reading as a service for more than 700,000 smart meters in Finland
• Landis+Gyr partnered with Ericsson to secure evolving service offering for utility customers
• This nationwide engagement leverages Ericsson’s managed services capabilities and strategic focus on the energy sector

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The majority of British Gas’ 16 million smart meters to be supplied by Landis+Gyr | Landis+Gyr expects to double its UK workforce as a result | 500 British Gas Smart Energy Experts to be recruited to install meters

British Gas customers are set to benefit from a £600m deal between British Gas and Landis+Gyr. The landmark deal, announced today, means Landis+Gyr will supply the majority of the 16 million smart meters British Gas will install in its customers’ homes.

By 2020 smart meters will be rolled out as standard to homes and businesses across the country as part of a Government initiative. They will replace current gas and electricity meters and offer the benefits of:

• An in-home display showing how much gas and electricity is being used as customers are using it – and the cost in pounds and pence
• Estimated savings of around 5% (£65) per year
• Meter readings sent directly to energy suppliers, putting an end to estimated bills

British Gas adopted a strategy to introduce smart meters into homes and businesses early in order to bring these benefits to customers as soon as possible, and currently leads the industry with more than a million meters already installed in customers’ homes and businesses.

Today’s announcement shows the scale and pace of British Gas’ investment to bring the technology to all its customers as soon as possible.

Chris Weston, Managing Director of British Gas, said:
“Smart meters herald a new era for energy customers, bringing a transformation in the way they can manage energy use in their homes and businesses. Our £600m investment in Landis+Gyr’s smart metering solutions means we can provide smart meters cost-effectively to our customers, and bring them the benefits of this innovative technology as soon as possible.”

“British Gas is leading the industry in the deployment of smart meters as part of our commitment to reshaping the energy industry for the digital era, making it easier for customers to understand their energy use and keep bills under control.”

Andreas Umbach, CEO, Landis+Gyr, said:

“We’ve been working with British Gas for the last three years to develop smart meters for its customers. This is the largest deal of its kind worldwide and sets a new industry standard for working in partnership.”

“It allows us to achieve significant economies of scale in meter production, to expand our UK operations and to further establish the UK as a global centre of smart energy excellence. This is great news for the industry and for our employees.”

As a result of the deal announced today, Landis+Gyr expects to double its 600-strong UK workforce and extend its manufacturing facilities to meet not only the demands of British Gas’s roll-out, but also those of its other UK customers as the roll-out gathers pace.

British Gas has already announced more than 1,000 roles for Smart Energy Experts who will install smart meters and provide energy efficiency advice to households. Today’s announcement paves the way for the recruitment of 500 Smart Energy Experts in 2014.

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French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault announced the go-ahead of the country’s smart electricity metering rollout on Tuesday, with the first phase of 3 million smart meters to be deployed by 2016.

The full nationwide rollout of 35 million smart meters will be completed by 2020, with an investment of €5 billion.

Announced as part of a new “Invest in France” plan at the Pierre and Marie Curie University, Prime Minister Ayrault said a tender for 3 million Linky meters would be issued by ERDF during the summer.

Prime Minster Ayrault, said:
“This investment is being mobilized directly for the environmental and energy transition.”

“These new meters will make life easier for users through remote reading, will help them manage their electricity consumption with better information, and will allow the development of new services as the autopilot of the electrical devices in the home.”

The ERDF developed Linky meter has been under test in a 300,000 meter pilot in Touraine and Lyon since 2009. In addition more than 25,000 Linky meters have been deployed in some of the dozen other smart grid pilots that ERDF currently has under way across France.

The “Invest in France” initiative is a new investment program to advance technological innovation and improve economic competitiveness in a number of fields. In addition to energy these include mobility, IT, healthcare and urban renewal.

According to the initiative press dossier, it is estimated that taking into account the required design and manufacturing operations, up to 80 percent of the meter could be made in France (presumably by value?). The project is also expected to lead to the creation of around 10,000 jobs, of which half would be for the installation, with the EDF Group intending to develop a center of excellence for export.

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Telefónica launches the first platform that integrates M2M communications and metering infrastructure management.

Telefónica announces today the launch of the first platform that integrates M2M communications and metering infrastructure management. Through the integration of M2M managed connectivity with smart meters, utilities and network operators will improve their monitoring and supervision capabilities, while reducing the operational costs of their network and metering infrastructure.

As the deployment of smart metering accelerates globally, there is an increasing demand for solutions to address the significant challenges of managing a high volume of devices, establishing the foundations for the Smart Grid, while also complying with regulation requirements.

To help utilities comply with these challenges, Telefónica has developed the first integrated solution covering both communications and utility operations to enhance smart metering deployments. The Connected Metering Platform simplifies utilities’ operational processes by automating the management of meter-related communications, and by exploiting operational data from a business point of view.

The main benefits of the Connected Metering Platform are: reduced operating costs, service level improvement, independence from meter and communications hardware vendors, compliance with security policies, and the ability to adapt to utilities’ operations and business process. In addition, Telefonica offers its customers the flexibility to integrate the Connected Metering Platform with different access technologies, hardware vendors and back-end systems.

The Connected Metering Platform is built on top of Telefónica’s M2M technology and assets, and has been designed in a modular, flexible and scalable manner, enabling utilities to unleash more value from their existing or planned smart metering investments.

“Smart meters are a first step towards the smart grid of the future which will transform the provision of utility services,” said Carlos Morales, Director of M2M and Cloud at Telefónica Digital.

“With our Connected Metering Platform we have listened to the needs of utilities companies and created a flexible, scalable and integrated service to support their smart meter deployments.”

With the launch of the Connected Metering Platform, Telefonica is committed to supporting the overall efficiency of the electric, gas and water industries, enabling utilities to deliver advanced metering solutions over a common, reliable and secure communications infrastructure.

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By the end of 2016, the global installed base of advanced (communicating) electricity meters is expected to double, according to a new market study from IMS Research, part of IHS Inc., titled The World Market for Smart Electricity Meters – 2012 Edition.

This is forecast to propel the installed base of communicating meters to almost 35 percent penetration globally.

At the close of 2011, just under 18 percent of the roughly 1.43 billion installed meters were communicating. These meters ranged from older one-way AMR (Advanced Meter Reading) style technology to GPRS (cellular) enabled C&I meters (commercial and industrial), to residential smart two-way meters. From 2012 onwards a mixture of fixed network technologies are anticipated to be installed worldwide, ranging from simpler RS485-wired types to next generation smart two-way PLC-OFDM meters.

Comments IMS Research Lead Analyst Michael Markides:

“In 2011 the market for advanced meters reached new heights; North American shipments remained strong, while shipments to China and Spain began in earnest. Largely due to these factors it is estimated that global advanced meter shipments in 2011 were double those of 2010. However, average annual shipments from 2012 through 2014 are expected to remain at this level, only growing significantly once more in 2015 when expected European advanced metering projects go online.”

While the markets of North America and Western Europe are mostly understood, in the long term the continued growth of the global smart meter market is highly dependent on developing economies such as China, Brazil and India. Of these three regions, China is currently the only significant market for advanced meters. In 2011, some 40 million advanced electricity meters were shipped here, however, most were simple wired RS485 meters utilizing one-way communications. The adoption of these simpler communicating meters reflects the difference in drivers in China when compared to Western Europe and North America. Rather than focusing on next-generation functionality such as voltage optimization or demand response, utilities here are more concerned with energy theft through meter tampering or bribes to readers. Brazil, India, and many other developing countries face similar challenges and may also see the need for simpler one-way style communicating meters to be installed in order to curtail non-technical losses.

Markides concludes:
“In the next five years, most developed countries and industrializing, developing nations will have thriving advanced electricity meter markets. Whether installed to save on labor costs, work in conjunction with other smart grid schemes, or curtail non-technical losses, utilities worldwide are accelerating their adoption of smart metering.”

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