While electricity grids still remain a marvel of the 20th century, they are highly complex with millions of miles of distribution lines. However, unlike IT and communications networks, they still lack intelligence.
The need for improved reliability, security, and operating efficiencies, lower costs, a better balance between power supply and demand, and a reduction in the electrical system’s impact on the climate, are all factors that are contributing to the build-out of intelligent electricity networks or smart grids.
While significant technical, economic and regulatory barriers to this roll-out remain, government and industry bodies are coming together with urgency to drive the industry forward, and Pike Research forecasts that smart grid infrastructure will attract $200 billion in worldwide investment between 2008 and 2015.
Pike Research’s latest report entitled “Smart Grid Technologies: Networking and Communications, Energy Management, Grid Automation, and Advanced Metering Infrastructure” analyses the global market for smart grid technologies and applications, including advanced metering infrastructure, transmission upgrades, substation automation, distribution automation, energy management systems, and electric vehicle management, among others. The report examines utility business models, regulatory factors, technology issues related to smart grid networking and other areas, and the dynamics of end-user demand. It includes profiles and analysis of 70 key players in the rapidly evolving smart grid industry ecosystem, as well as detailed global market forecasts by 2015, segmented by region and application.
"Smart meters are currently the highest-profile component of the Smart Grid, but they are really just the tip of the iceberg," says Pike Research’s Managing Director, Clint Wheelock. "Our analysis shows that utilities will find the best return on investment, and therefore will devote the majority of their capital budgets, to grid infrastructure projects including transmission upgrades, substation automation, and distribution automation."
Pike Research forecasts that these grid automation initiatives will capture 84% of global smart grid investment by 2015, compared to just 14% for advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and 2% for electric vehicle management systems. The clean tech market intelligence firm also anticipates that smart grid revenues will peak in 2013 after several years of investments by key governments, and will thereafter tail off. Nonetheless, Pike forecasts, the smart grid market will still remain very substantial.
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