Metering.com 13 FEBRUARY 2018
Technavio forecasts the global market for power utility monitoring systems to grow by over 6% between 2018 and 2022.
Market drivers include successful consumer smart meter awareness programmes in Europe and North America.
“Consumer awareness initiatives have helped in increasing the adoption rate of smart meters, thereby creating an opportunity for power utility monitoring system vendors. For instance, the Austrian government introduced a campaign to educate consumers about the benefits of smart metering through news articles, mails, social media, and press conferences,” writes a senior research analyst with Technavio.
In European countries, the USmartConsumer project is being implemented to promote the use of smart meters.
Continued efforts to educate consumers on advanced power distribution solutions will drive the market.
Technavio has identified increased use of real-time power distribution analysis in utility grids as the main trend within the global power utility monitoring systems market.
Data use in utility monitoring systems
In order to achieve efficiency, reliability and improve customer services, security and safety, utilities are using data and analytics to actively monitor and control the distribution grid.
Real-time analysis allows utilities to remotely and quickly switch lines, change taps on transformers, switch capacitors, manage controllable loads, and dispatch distributed generation.
Real time analysis includes the employment of computerised probes that measure grid load, consumer energy consumption, consumer energy demand, and voltage generation.
On the other hand, the issue of cybersecurity will remain an issue and challenge the growth of the market.
Utilities have over the past decade modernised their grid within advanced infrastructure. This has increased the vulnerability of grids to cyberattacks in APAC, the Americas, and EMEA regions.