Smart Grid players to shift focus to applications from deployment

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Smart Grid players to shift focus to applications from deployment

Greentech Lead India: The smart grid sector will shift
its focus from infrastructure deployment to applications in 2012.

“Utilities need to prove to both end-use customers and
regulators that the adoption of smart grid technologies, such as smart meters,
has been worthwhile in either reducing costs or boosting energy efficiency,”
said Pike Research vice president Bob Gohn.

Relatively simple applications such as prepaid metering
services should be straightforward, while others, like the integration of
distribution automation (DA) with advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), and
the adoption of microgrids, are more ambitious.

Major challenges remain, as continuing consumer pushback
against smart meters is likely to extend to dynamic pricing program rollouts
and home area networking, threatening some of the key principles of smart grid
investments.

Pike Research’s smart grid industry predictions include
the following:

* Smart meters will shift from deployment to applications

* Dynamic pricing debates will escalate

* Architecture will be the new buzzword

* Cyber security failures will become almost inevitable

* Consumer backlash against smart meters will not go away

* Distribution automation and AMI will intersect

* Microgrids will move from curiosity to reality

* The freeze on home area networks will begin to thaw –
just a little

* Asia Pacific smart grid adoption will accelerate even
faster

* Stimulus investments will bear mixed fruit

Malaysia Smart Grid market to grow to $109 million by 2016 from
$35 million in 2011

The Malaysia Smart Grid technology market is likely to
grow to $109.0 million by 2016 from $35.2 million in 2011.

The demand for energy consumption in Malaysia is
projected to increase by 5 percent per year over the next five years, and is
likely to double in the next 20 years, according to the new report from Zpryme,
Malaysia: The Smart Grid Has Landed.

To meet this need, Malaysia’s largest utility, Tenaga
Nasional Berhad (TNB), has undertaken a Smart Grid demonstration project
working with 5,000 customers in 3 different cities.

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