https://www.iotworldtoday.com/wp-content/themes/ioti_child/assets/images/logo/footer-logo.png
  • Home
  • News
    • Back
    • IoT World 2020 News
  • Strategy
  • Special Reports
  • Galleries
  • Business Resources
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Industry Perspectives
    • Featured Vendors
  • Other Content
    • Back
    • IoT World 2020 News
    • Q&As
    • Case Studies
    • Features
    • How-to
    • Opinion
    • Video / Podcasts
  • More
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Strategic Partners
  • IOT World Events
    • Back
    • Internet of Things World: San Jose
    • IoT World 2020 News
Iot World Today
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • News
    • Back
    • IoT World 2020 News
  • Strategy
  • Special Reports
  • Galleries
  • Business Resources
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Industry Perspectives
    • Featured Vendors
  • Other Content
    • Back
    • IoT World 2020 News
    • Q&As
    • Case Studies
    • Features
    • How-to
    • Opinion
    • Video / Podcasts
  • More
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Strategic Partners
  • IOT World Events
    • Back
    • Internet of Things World: San Jose
    • IoT World 2020 News
  • newsletter
  • IIoT
  • Cities
  • Energy
  • Homes/Buildings
  • Transportation/Logistics
  • Connected Health Care
  • Retail
  • AI
  • Architecture
  • Engineering/Development
  • Security
ioti.com

Energy/Utilities


Getty Images

Image shows electric meters on a wall

Smart Meters: A Game Changer, but Hurdles Remain

The use of smart meters can help boost utility revenues and improve customer experience, but significant technical and business hurdles remain. Here’s what to expect from this promising energy-monitoring breakthrough.
  • Written by Valerie Silverthorne
  • 2nd April 2019

By some estimates, smart utility meters are the most widely deployed commercial IoT application around the world today.

But smart meters still have a long road ahead of them before they’re ubiquitous. A myriad of technical challenges —from battery power to data storage — persist as well as ongoing concerns about the difficulty in making the total cost of ownership case.

Despite the hurdles, there’s no question smart meters have the potential to expand the role of utility companies in the “smart everywhere” movement and their ability to offer new kinds of services to consumers. Done right, smart meters will be a critical backbone in smart cities and counties. Data shows smart meter deployments lead to a nearly immediate 10 percent decrease in utility usage, but they can also allow customers better control over energy bills, improved communication during outages, and even home monitoring services. Smart meters can be a win-win for utility companies and consumers, according to Olivier Amiot, director of marketing for energy IoT solutions at Sierra Wireless, because they can bring them closer together around shared goals. “With more smart meters rolling out across territories and digital transformation that enables integration of more renewable energy sources at a large scale, customers can take part in a greener world transformation by using the dynamic energy pricing — that is, pricing that responds to the supply and demand of energy,” Amiot said.

Ultimately smart meters won’t be a stand-alone solution but a key part of a smart energy ecosystem, said Susanne Cumberland, senior research analyst, energy technology, with research firm IHS Markit. “If we begin to look at the grid and things connected to the grid as an ecosystem, the data can be used in more than one way,” Cumberland said. “It can help with energy efficiency, storm damage control, asset monitoring. It is a piece of a bigger puzzle.”

A Broad Landscape

To understand that puzzle, it helps to know where smart meters began. In the United States, a post-2008 stimulus project 10 years ago helped jump-start the movement and today 80 million smart meters are installed, according to Adam Cooper, senior director of research and strategy with the Edison Foundation Institute for Electric Innovation. Although that number represents between 140 million and 150 million customers, coverage is still very sporadic with smart meters being very prevalent in some states and nearly absent in others. That disparity has created “two very different worlds,” Cooper said.

Those wide variations are also true across the globe. IHS Markit said close to 700 million smart meters are installed worldwide (as of the end of 2018) and national rollouts in countries including China, Benelux, France, Italy and the UK will peak in the near term. Overall, smart meters will make up nearly 60 percent of the European market this year, and close to 50 percent of the Asia Pacific region, according to Navigant Research. The worldwide penetration of smart meters in 2019 should be close to 50 percent, Navigant predicted. 

  • Page 1
  • Page 2
Tags: Smart meters homepage-featured-3 Energy/Utilities Other Content Features

Related


  • Smart cities
    25 of the Smartest Cities on the Planet
    Smart city projects have become trendy across the world, but truth be told, many of these initiatives are still in relatively early stages. That said, a growing number of pioneers are stepping up to help lay the groundwork for the truly smart cities of the future. Here, we take a look at 25 of them.
  • Image shows an urban smart city graphic.
    Smart to Future Cities: Defining the Perfect Solution
    The main purpose and identity of a smart city was hotly debated at Smart to Future Cities, but Europe’s urban IoT leaders did agree on what defines the perfect smart city solution.
  • Smart Speakers, Automation and the Future of Smart Buildings
    Voice interfaces and advances in smart buildings promise to transform how we perform a range of common tasks — and perhaps our own sense of trust.
  • Dark skyline
    Electric Grid Stability Assailed by Growing Challenges
    The twin threats of distributed energy resources and cyberwarfare threaten electric grid stability.

Leave a comment Cancel reply

-or-

Log in with your IoT World Today account

Alternatively, post a comment by completing the form below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Related Content

  • 5G in Energy Sector Looms Large, Despite Lack of 5G Infrastructure
  • Finding Alternate Energy Sources for IoT Devices
  • IoT Salary Survey Report
  • Energy Asset Performance Management to Take on Automation

News

View all

Private LTE Market Projected to Grow to $13 Billion

12th January 2021

IoT World Announces 2021 IoT World Advisory Board

9th December 2020

White Papers

View all

The eSIM Cookbook – Towards the Next Generation of Connected Devices

22nd February 2021

eSIM Delivers Greater Freedom for OEMs – by Beecham Research and Truphone

22nd February 2021

Special Reports

View all

Cybersecurity Protection Increasingly Depends on Machine Learning

28th October 2020

Webinars

View all

Weber’s Journey: How a Top Grill Maker Serves Up Connected Cooking

25th February 2021

From Insights to Action: Best Practices for Implementing Connected Device Security

15th December 2020

Galleries

View all

Top IoT Trends to Watch in 2020

26th January 2020

Five of the Most Promising Digital Health Technologies

14th January 2020

Industry Perspectives

View all

IoT Spending Holds Firm — Tempered by Dose of ‘IoT Pragmatism’

1st December 2020

The Great IoT Connectivity Lockdown

11th May 2020

Events

View all

IoT at the Edge

17th March 2021

Embedded IoT World 2021

28th April 2021 - 29th April 2021

IoT World 2021

2nd November 2021 - 4th November 2021

Twitter

IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

How IoT Devices Can Enhance the Connected Customer Experience dlvr.it/RtPcvS

24th February 2021
IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

🤝 Meet #EIOTWORLD speaker Ingo Feldner, Project Lead for Virtual #Hardware Platforms at @RobertBoschGmbH 📅 Join hi… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

24th February 2021
IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

Developing IoT Applications with Rust: Using a Rust Development Environment dlvr.it/RtNqrk https://t.co/wOmnoz2UVT

24th February 2021
IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

Chip-Enabled Edge AI Drives Next-Gen IoT dlvr.it/RtKcMQ https://t.co/dLjBzE6Qei

23rd February 2021
IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

The eSIM Cookbook – Towards the Next Generation of Connected Devices dlvr.it/RtG5bB https://t.co/5kXa8Pnv4T

22nd February 2021
IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

eSIM Delivers Greater Freedom for OEMs – by Beecham Research and Truphone dlvr.it/RtG5Vq https://t.co/OTNqYFxsYt

22nd February 2021
IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

Emerging Edge Cloud Architecture Continues to Shake Out dlvr.it/RtFmM7 https://t.co/EJGKH71s3N

22nd February 2021
IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

Recent years have seen a surge in interest in enterprise digital transformation in Africa. #IoTWorld Africa returns… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

22nd February 2021

Newsletter

Sign up for IoT World Today newsletters: vertical industry coverage on Tuesdays and horizontal tech coverage on Thursdays.

Special Reports

Our Special Reports take an in-depth look at key topics within the IoT space. Download our latest reports.

Business Resources

Find the latest white papers and other resources from selected vendors.

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our audience? Access our media kit.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • IoT World Series
  • Channel Futures
  • RISC-V
  • Dark Reading
  • ITPro Today
  • Web Hosting Talk

WORKING WITH US

  • Contact
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • Login/Register

FOLLOW IoT World Today ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookies Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2021 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.
This website uses cookies, including third party ones, to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to improve your experience and our services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
X