Energy management leads smart grid IT systems market

metering.com 14 JULY 2016

According to a new report the energy management system segment will continue to dominate the global smart grid IT systems market through to 2020.

The global smart grid IT systems market report shows the energy market system (EMS) segment to lead during the forecast period (2016-2020).

According to a release, the EMS is defined as a system that optimises, supervises, and controls transmission grid and generation assets. The firm that compiled the report, Technavio, states that the “EMS segment will likely see robust growth during the forecast period with the growing adoption of smart grid systems worldwide, which would increase grid reliability and minimise losses.” [BNEF issues new white paper on energy management]

Sayani Roy, a lead analyst at Technavio for research on power sector, commented: “With government policies in the US and the EU encouraging decentralised power generation, utilities are increasingly facing challenges in terms of addition of small to medium capacity energy produced by prosumers.

“This has made utilities depend on systems such as EMS to gain a clear visibility and control of the transmission and distribution grid. Also, this allows utilities to make use of the grid flexibility and optimize grid performance.”

Smart grid IT systems

Other market segments boosting growth in the smart grid IT systems market includes distribution management systems (DMS), outage management system (OMS) and data analytics.

In terms of distribution management systems, utilities have been found to be now, more and more, integrating IT and OT systems that previously worked in silos, which led to inaccuracy in the status of the asset and data interpretation. [Honeywell lands US$29m energy management deal]

Technavio adds that billions are being invested in the deployment and installation of smart grid devices such as AMI, smart meters, and other related technologies to control and manage grids effectively.

“Data analytics is expected to be highly beneficial for countries like India where millions of dollars are lost due to power theft,” said Sayani.

The report also notes that as demand for energy grows, immense pressure is put on utilities to provide constant electricity supply to the masses with fewer outages as possible. It concludes by saying that outage management systems therefore will be critical to manage the grid and restore power to the grid during service interruptions.