Asia-Pacific Smart Meter Shipments Grow 516.8% in 2012, Reports Tracker

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--It was not that long ago that the benefits of smart metering were speculative and the topic was on the margins of energy efficiency. Now it has moved to the centre of distribution execution, and it is partnered in transmission by the advance of smart grid management.

Worldwide smart meter shipments passed 15.4 million units in the third quarter of 2012. This represented a year-over-year growth of 126.9% and a 58.6% increase over the previous quarter, according to IDC Energy Insights, a quarterly smart meter tracker.

The Americas were the only regions not to show growth as several large projects were completed in the previous quarter. Latin and South America remain promising, but scale projects have not yet emerged to replace the decline in North American shipments.

The Asia-Pacific region grew at an exponential rate of 516.8% year-over-year and 142.02% for sequential quarters. A large part of this growth is driven by China, where utilities are beginning to equip meters deployed under previous metering tenders with communications. The Asia-Pacific region is forecast to remain a source of growth for the smart metering industry in coming years as Japan, Korea, Oceania and South and Southeast Asia begin to ramp up advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) deployments.

The Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region grew 54.5% year-over-year and 8.5% for sequential quarters. The near future for smart meters in EMEA looks unimpressive and frustrating, with no indications that shipments will pick up before 2014, IDC notes.

Cellular AMI communications will reach 17% of smart meter shipments in the more mature markets of North America and Europe by 2016, up from 8% in 2012.

While many of the basic metering upgrades under way in Asia-Pacific and other emerging markets are likely to deploy power line communications (PLC), high-bandwidth networks also have been deployed in other regions .In Australia, 3G and 4G-WiMax utility networks are currently being used as common infrastructure for metering and distribution monitoring and control. Many of these Australian networks may eventually be displaced by fiber-to-the-premises through the Australian National Broadband Network.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, and eight offices outside of North America, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.