94 percent of all electricity meters in North America will be smart in 2029

A new research report from the IoT analyst firm Berg Insight reveals that the penetration of smart electricity meters in North America reached 80 percent in 2023.

Overall, the installed base of smart electricity meters will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 3.8 percent during 2023–2029, reaching a total of 182.9 million units by the end of the forecast period. Over the next six years, the penetration of smart meters in the US will increase to 94 percent while in the more advanced Canadian market, it will reach 96 percent.

“First-generation smart meter shipments will account for an increasingly smaller share of annual shipment volumes. In the next two years, first-generation projects by utilities such as AEP, PSEG, Xcel Energy, First Energy, PPL, Dominion Energy, National Grid, Ameren, Avangrid, Exelon and AES will contribute to annual first-generation smart electricity meter shipments ranging from 5 to 7 million units. Meanwhile, second-generation smart meter deployments account for a growing share of annual smart meter shipment volumes and are forecast to account for more than 80 percent of yearly shipments by the end of the forecast period,” said Mattias Carlsson, IoT Analyst at Berg Insight.

According to the study, yearly shipments of smart electricity meters in North America will peak at 18.5 million in 2024 and gradually decline to 14.9 million units by 2029.

Alongside the increase in replacement smart meter projects, the development of smart metering technology in the North American market has recently shifted focus to new demands beyond smart metering. Utilities are now looking to leverage their existing network canopies for a wider array of smart city applications. They are also addressing how to integrate the rapidly increasing number of electric vehicles and distributed energy resources into the grid infrastructure.

“The leading vendors are now in a race to develop and successfully market the most compelling use cases for second-generation smart metering technology. In addition to enhanced computing power, edge analytics and more frequent meter reads that offer a new range of benefits and control, utilities are increasingly seeking to combine various applications into a unified solution”, concluded Mr. Carlsson.

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