SMART METERS COMING ON

Worldwide Smart Meter Shipments Surpass 15.4 Million Units in 3Q 2012, According to IDC Energy Insights; Cellular AMI Communications Will Present Growth Opportunity Through 2016

December 10, 2012

“Worldwide smart meter shipments surpassed 15.4 million units in the third quarter of 2012 (3Q12), representing year-over-year growth of 126.9% and a 58.6% increase over the second quarter, according to the IDC Energy Insights Worldwide Quarterly Smart Meter Tracker…Growth was observed across all regions except for the Americas…Latin and South America remain promising, but scale projects have not yet emerged to replace the decline in North American shipments.

“The Asia/Pacific region grew at an astonishing rate of 516.8% year over year and 142.02% sequentially. Much of this growth can be attributed to China; Chinese utilities are beginning to equip meters deployed under previous metering tenders with communications. The Asia/Pacific region will remain a source of growth for the smart metering industry in coming years as Japan, Korea, Oceana and even South and Southeast Asia begin to ramp up advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) deployments.”

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“…[T] he Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region exhibited growth of 54.5% year over year and 8.5% sequentially…well below the expectations set by previous regulatory targets…[T]he AMI industry is becoming increasingly frustrated with Europe…[but] there are no indications that meter shipments will pick up significantly before 2014…

“…[G]rowth of cellular AMI communications [is speeding up]…[It]will reach 17% of smart meter shipments in the more mature metering markets of Europe and North America by 2016, up from less than 8% in 2012…[M]any of the basic metering upgrades underway in Asia/Pacific and other emerging markets are likely to deploy power line communications (PLC)…[H]igh bandwidth networks have also been deployed…3G and 4G-WiMax utility networks deployed in Australia are currently being utilized as common infrastructure for metering and distribution monitoring and control…[but] may eventually be displaced by FTTP (fiber-to-the-premises) through the Australian National Broadband Network...”

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