In coming decade, the market for smart grid sensors will expand with revenues growing nearly ten-fold by 2021, reports IHS Inc.
The United States market is estimated to reach $30 million in 2014 and an annual growth from 2015 to 2021 is expected to average 36 percent.
The United States has been on the forefront of smart grid sensor market development and the main factor for this growth has been the influence of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009.
The Act provided the investment needed to install grid distribution-layer communications networks.
The market for smart grid sensors is centered mainly in North America, where there is a mixture of large installations and smaller pilot projects.
Last year, a series of larger contracts were reviewed in North America, where the larger tenders for smart grid sensors support the positive outlook.
Meanwhile, Europe, Latin America and other global regions are also forecast to become high-growth markets.
In Latin America, utilities are spending time and resources to install pilot programs.
The Latin American government regularly takes note of the grid problems, with more and more policies and schemes announced to encourage investment in smart grids.
In Europe there is a strong need for renewables energy management. The influx of renewable energy is creating a large demand for improved grid monitoring.
Greater adoption of smart grid sensors across Europe is anticipated, as utilities will need more granular measurements on the electricity grid.
Since many of these residential solar installations are in urban environments made up of large underground distribution networks, smart grid sensor growth in Europe is supported by an increase in sales of underground sensors.
The monitoring of grid in real-time is essential and utilities are expected to gain greater value by installing modern smart grid sensors, which will help to improve utility operations and performance.
IHS forecasts that the smart grid will account for 75 percent of the total sensor market in 2021.
Going from pilot programs to large-scale installations will bring successful deployments, benefits to utilities, and allow for smart grid sensor technology to scale accordingly.
Sabeena Wahid
editor@greentechlead.com