Report: Global Smart Grid Investment to Reach $46 Billion by 2015


Cumulative global investment in smart grids, including smart meter
implementations as well as upgrades to the transmission and
distribution infrastructure, will approach $46 billion by 2015,
according to the latest forecasts from ABI Research.



Larry Fisher, research director of NextGen, the ABI Research unit that
published this study, says, “Most of the electric utility
infrastructure deployed in the industrialized world was built between
60 and 80 years ago. Much of this infrastructure is outdated, and with
the continuing increase in demand for power year after year, the grid
cannot safely and reliably manage the loads of today and tomorrow
without significant upgrades.”



The groundwork for smart grids has been laid in a number of countries
over the past several years, but the pace of investment and
implementation is increasing. Fisher notes, “Transmission and
Distribution (T&D) investments will account for the lion’s share of
smart grid investments through 2015; on a cumulative basis, a total of
almost $41 billion will be invested globally in the electrical
Transmission and Distribution infrastructure through 2015, compared to
$4.8 billion for the purchase and installation of smart meters. This
infrastructure spending will focus on grid automation and control,
distribution automation, distributed generation and demand response
programs.”



ABI Research’s new study href=”http://www.abiresearch.com/research/1005219”
target=”new”>Smart Grid Applications: Smart Meters, Demand
Response, and Distributed Generation
forecasts the market for
smart grid equipment and services for the 2010-2015 period, covering
North America, Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, and selected other
countries.



It provides the outlook for smart meter installations, as well as the
spending associated with them. It also examines and forecasts spending
on smart grid-related Transmission and Distribution (T&D)
infrastructure, as well as implementation of specific smart grid-
related components at the utility level, such as synchrophasors and
HAN communication chipsets.

Source: Clean Edge News

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