Smart meters to see huge growth in global revenue

Smart meters could see a growth in global revenue totalling $7.4 billion (£4.5 billion) within the next four years. A new report predicts that smart meters share of the global market will grow on the $5.2 billion they were worth in 2012.

Telefonica released a new report, entitled 'The Smart Meter Revolution', which predicts that Europe and Asia will be the main areas behind the growth of the Smart Meter. It suggests that over 800 million of the devices could be installed across the globe by 2020.

Smart meters help households to keep track of the amount of electricity and gas they use while relaying information to energy providers, meaning that meter readings are no longer needed. As well as allowing companies to make informed decisions when it comes to a household's energy costs, it also helps people to better understand their energy usage.

Telefonica provides the communications for the smart meter programme in the UK, which is being spearheaded by the government. Its report suggests that around 80 per cent of households throughout Europe will have smart meters by 2020. This is due to new regulations that are increasing the technology's uptake.

Currently within Europe, around 17 per cent of households have had a smart meter installed. It is expected that uptake will continue to improve, allowing the region to catch up with the deployment currently experienced with North America, which boasts the highest take up.

Asia is expected to have a slower uptake of the technology, however; this will improve by 2022, resulting in around 70 per cent of the region having smart meters installed. The report suggests that this will largely be driven by China, as Japan is currently lagging behind on the number of installations, although this is expected to improve over the next ten years.

The global average will be brought down by a lack of installations throughout Latin America and the Middle East, according to the report. It is also thought that smart meter revenues will start to fall from 2018 onwards, due to a decreasing number of installations and the reduction in unit cost.