Metering International

URL:http://www.metering.com

The meter industry is poised for the most important technological development since the introduction of the Ferraris induction meter over a century ago. Replacement of electromechanical meters with basic solid state meters has already started. This trend has now been overtaken by a development which has been brewing for several years but in the last 12 to 18 months has taken a significant step forward to reality. This is the introduction of advanced or intelligent metering, with which energy providers and consumers communicate with each other.

Advanced metering offers benefits such as, planning for lower energy consumption, demand management to reduce peak load, lower supplier costs, lower consumer bills, fewer GHG emissions, better service to the consumers and additional services for customers. Recent studies record modest cost benefit savings from 0% to 20%, with an average of 5% to 10%. But take note, the global stock of electromechanical meters is carried on utility books at installation value of some $20 billion, with a 20-30 year straight-line depreciation.
For any utility, the write-off of this large asset would involve a huge accounting loss.

The dynamics of meter demand are already changing in the short to medium term, but this change is going to accelerate in the next ten to fifteen years because the driving factors are shifting. Demand may rise substantially both in volume and value in about fifteen years, as the proportion of the solid state meter stock increases. Solid state meters have a shorter life than the longer-lived electromechanical meters and are more costly. The net result will be a higher volume of replacements due to shorter age and a higher price to pay for them. Against this must be set the possibility of increases in the design life of solid state meters and a reduction in price. Given the long life of electromechanical meters and the large numbers of used meters in perfectly good condition which will be sloshing around in the global market place, we predict that a secondary market of electromechanical meters may remain in existence for many years after most of the world has converted to solid state metering, maintaining the old electromechanical meters by cannibalising redundant stock.

The scope of this report includes:
Meter market size

    * Demand for electricity meters for every country
    * Demand forecasts from 2006 to 2012

Market analysis and meter types

    * Analysis of the installed base of electromechanical and electronic meters by country
    * Future trends of electromechanical/solid state deployment in major markets, with country analysis
    * Development of new electronic meter production, identifying important new producing countries