Smart meter installs nearly 1B by 2020, despite lower shipments

Annual smart meter shipments in regions like North America are expected to decline significantly in the next two years, but the number of installed smart meters worldwide is still estimated by Pike Research to reach 960 million by 2020.

Legislative incentives in the U.S., government policy mandates in Europe, economic and system reliability concerns in Latin America, and an aggressive deployment program in China have driven the market to where it is today and where it is expected to be by the end of the decade. But many aggressive utility deployments are reaching their conclusions and shipments are seeing a steady decline.

"The slowdown in smart meter rollouts in North America, where unit shipments are expected to drop by 42 percent between 2011 and 2013, will be overshadowed by growth in Europe and Asia Pacific, particularly China," said Pike Senior Research Analyst Neil Strother.

"Growth in China is occurring much earlier and faster than anticipated, even if debate continues on whether these meters fully meet the definition of a smart meter. Deployments in Europe will finally begin their growth phase in the middle part of the decade, resulting in a compound annual growth rate for the worldwide smart meter market of just under 5 percent between 2010 and 2020."

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