A new market study by Global Industry Analysts Inc. (GIA) shows that the global market for smart electricity meters is expected to reach $15.2 billion by 2026.

The prediction comes courtesy of market research publisher GIA’s latest report, Smart Electricity Meters – Global Market Trajectory & Analytics.

Covid-19 and its market repercussions

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the meters’ global market – currently estimated at $11.4 billion – is projected to reach a revised size of $15.2 billion by 2026, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.7% over the analysis period.

Single-phase meters, one of the segments analysed in the report, is projected to record 6.2% CAGR and reach $11.9 billion.

The global market for three-phase smart meters – estimated at $3 billion in 2022 – is projected to reach $4.1 billion by 2026. After an analysis of the pandemic’s business implications, growth in the three-phase segment was readjusted to a revised 7.9% CAGR for the next seven year period.

Market influencers

The study found that the market’s growth will be driven by numerous factors. These include the following:

• Increased need for products and services that enable energy conservation.
• Government initiatives to install smart electric meters and address energy requirements.
• The ability of smart electric meters to reduce manual data collection costs and prevent energy losses due to theft and fraud.
• Increased investments in smart grid establishments.
• The growing trend of integration of renewable sources to existing power generation grids.
• Continuously rising T&D upgrade initiatives, especially in developed economies.
• Increased investments into construction of commercial establishments, including educational institutions and banking institutions in developing and developed economies.
• Emerging growth opportunities in Europe, including ongoing rollouts of smart electricity meter rollouts in countries such as Germany, the UK, France, and Spain.

Leading markets

Asia-Pacific and China represent the leading regional markets due to their increasing adoption of smart meters. This adoption has been driven by the need to mitigate unaccounted power losses and introduce tariff plans based on the electricity usage of customers.

China also constitutes as the largest regional market for the three-phase segment, accounting for 36% global sales. They are poised to register the fastest compounded annual growth rate of 9.1% over the analysis period and reach $1.8 billion by its close.

The study is available online.