Greentech Lead North America: Worldwide shipments of both
advanced and basic electricity submeters are estimated to reach 1.6 million
annually by 2020. From 2012 to 2020, shipments will total more than 10 million,
according to the latest report, “Electricity Submeters,” from Pike Research.
Electricity submeters are installed downstream of the
utility meter and provide disaggregated energy and power quality information to
key decision-makers including facilities managers, building owners, tenants,
enabling them to increase efficiency and more readily monitor systems.
While the technology is not new, building owners and
managers are taking control of costs in commercial, industrial, and residential
buildings worldwide, empowered by tools and solutions that offer deep insight
into the way energy is used in their buildings. Submetering technology and
services lie at the heart of this transformation.
“Green building certification programs like Leadership in
Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and Building Research Establishment
Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) specifically recommend, incentivize,
or even require submetering to be installed in certified properties,” says
senior research analyst Eric Bloom.
“At the same time, a number of important regulations,
such as building codes and governmental imperatives, are coming into effect,
requiring submetering or continuous energy monitoring,” Bloom added. “These
forces are driving demand for submetering technology and services that leverage
the data that submeters provide.”
Over the next eight years an increasing number of
submeters will be fitted with wireless capability, according to Pike Research.
Wireless is ideal in cases where significant cabling would be required to
enable a submeter system and it results in considerable avoided cost. This type
of arrangement makes sense in many campus-wide submeter retrofits, where the
installation of copper is impractical.
However, wireless still faces a number of financial and
technical barriers to implementation. Adding a wireless communication device
can add considerable upfront cost to a submetering system, and from a technical
perspective, wireless systems cannot always provide data over the long
distances required for certain installations. Nevertheless, wireless submeters
will help expand the overall market, according to the report.