A new report says smart-meter penetration in North America will reach 50 percent by 2016.
Berg Insight says the installed base of smart electricity meters in North America will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 22.5 percent between 2010 and 2016 to reach 87.4 million. Over the next five years, smart-meter penetration among residential electricity customers in the U.S. and Canada is projected to rise from about 20 percent in mid-2011 to more than 50 percent by the end of 2016. Berg says just about everyone will have one by 2020.
Smart meters record how much electricity you use hourly and send that information back to the utility company on a daily basis for monitoring and billing purposes. They enable two-way communication between the meter and the company’s central system.
“North America has been at the forefront of metering innovation for many decades and is now embracing the latest smart technologies that improve grid performance," said Tobias Ryberg, senior analyst, Berg Insight and author of the report. “The U.S. federal government and many states have successfully stimulated the demand for smart metering solutions through a combination of financial incentives and regulatory requirements. Full-scale rollouts are now underway at nearly half of the largest investor-owned utilities, as well as among hundreds of municipals and electric cooperatives."
Governments are helping to make smart-meter deployment more common. For example, California and Texas have passed legislation that require smart meters for all electricity customers. Regulators in Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Georgia have given their approval for smart meter plans proposed by utilities. In Canada, Ontario completed the first major rollout of smart meters earlier this year and new projects now underway in British Columbia and Québec are set to boost the penetration for smart metering in the country to around two-thirds of the households.
