Nearly half of the world population is living in urban areas nowadays. The future prospect is that the number of people living in cities will further increase. By 2050 two-thirds of world’s population will live in cities. Cities worldwide are responsible for seventy-five percent of global energy consumption and put pressure on the environment. Nonetheless, cities produce eighty percent of global GDP. Urbanisation with all its side effects cannot simply be overturned overnight. This would cause the world economy to collapse. By turning cities into smart cities governments around the world try to tackle the disadvantages of city life while boosting the world economy. The idea is that with information and communication technology (ICT), the internet of things (IoT), and data analytics city life can be made more sustainable, resilient, and equitable for citizens worldwide now and in the future.
To make cities more sustainable, Advanced Metering Infrastruture (AMI) is necessary. AMI is a system that measures, collects, and analyses the energy usage, and communicates with the smart meter on request or on a schedule. This system digitalizes the energy grid, enabling cities to become sustainable smart cities.
Smart meters are digital devices designed to accurately measure and record electricity, gas, or water consumption in real time and with the possibility to send these measured data to utility companies. They are thought to be essential to enhance the reliability, efficiency and sustainability of the energy grid used by smart cities.
In 2020 the global AMI market was estimated to 19.4 billion dollar, and it was forecasted that it would reach 36.3 billion dollar by 2028. Trends that favour the AMI market are the growing adoption of renewable energy sources, smart meter rollouts policies, carbon footprint reduction policies, the advanced grid reliability due to smart meters, and the necessity to analyse the electric power industry data. However, the smart meter rollout asks for high investments, and there are concerns around data privacy.
In 2023 the fastest growing market was expected to be Asia Pacific, followed by Europe, and North America. Expected is that other regions will follow. It was estimated back then that at least 123 million smart meters were rolled out in Europe, 115 million in North-America, 462,000 in Brazil, and 4.5 million in Australia and New Zealand. Besides that, it was estimated that by 2024 – 2025 650 million smart meters would be rolled out in China, eighty million in Japan, and twelve million in Saudi Arabia.
The rollout of smart meters in the world was at that moment quite diverse. For instance, in Europe, Cyprus had not started yet with its smart meter rollout, while countries such as Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Italy, Norway, Spain, and Sweden already had completed its smart meter rollout. Across Europe the smart electricity meter had penetrated around 47 percent of the European market back then.
At the end of 2023, the smart electricity meter market achieved 43 percent penetration of the overall global electricity meter market, according to the Global Smart Meter Market Tracker.
At the end of 2024, North America leads with 81 percent penetration of the smart meter market, followed by Europe and China. Although smart electricity meters currently dominate the global market, Latin America, Africa, and South Asia are still far behind. There are now 1.8 billion units installed, and it is expected that by 2030 more than three billion units will be installed, mainly smart electricity meters, but with accelerated growth in water and gas meters.
Before electricity can be used more sustainably by cities, with the help of digital technology, more smart electricity meters must therefore be rolled out worldwide than the number currently installed. The installation of smart gas meters and smart water meters is even further behind. Therefore, much work still needs to be done on a global scale to make electricity, gas, and water consumption in cities more sustainable.
©FPM
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