According to a new report from the IoT analyst firm Berg Insight, the installed base of smart gas meters in Europe amounted to 55.9 million in 2023, equivalent to a penetration rate of 45 percent.

The installed base is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 6.8 percent between 2023 and 2028, reaching 77.6 million units at the end of the period. Annual shipment volumes amounted to 4.8 million units in 2023 and are expected to be around 5.0–5.8 million throughout the forecast period.

The UK, Italy and Belgium were the most active markets, together accounting for 86 percent of all smart gas meter shipments during the year. While the rollouts in Italy, France and the Netherlands are largely completed, the UK market is finally after several delays ramping up yearly installations to reach a peak of 3.2–3.4 million units per year during 2024–2025. Belgium and Ireland are two other markets that are expected to contribute with significant shipment volumes in the coming years. The Spanish market is expected to reach yearly shipment volumes of 1.0 million units by the end of the forecast period.

The smart gas meters deployed in Europe have over the past years not been networked in quite the same way as their counterparts in the electricity sector. A common model, observed in the UK, the Netherlands and Belgium, is to utilize a local wireless or wired interface to transmit gas data via the customer’s smart electricity meter. A mix of 169 MHz RF and 2G/3G cellular communications has meanwhile been the primary model for the largest projects in which smart gas meters have been deployed independently of smart electricity meters, such as in Italy and France. A change of the status quo is likely on the horizon as new types of LPWA technologies have become more readily available in the past couple of years.

Mattias Carlsson, IoT Analyst at Berg Insight, said:
“The Italian gas sector was the first in Europe to initiate large-scale adoption of NB-IoT as a primary smart meter connectivity choice and in 2023 the installed base of gas meters with NB-IoT connectivity in the country reached more than 2.5 million at the end of the year. We anticipate that by the end of the forecast period NB-IoT will become the go-to connectivity option for smart gas meters, not only in Italy but also in several other European markets.”

The composition of communications technologies in the installed base of smart gas meters has already begun to shift in favor of new LPWA technologies. 169 MHz still however remains the most popular communications technology with a market share of around 37 percent at the end of 2023, while Zigbee boasted a market share of 26 percent. By 2026, Zigbee is expected to surpass 169 MHz as the most prevalent connectivity option with an installed base of 23.4 million – a number that is further forecasted to increase to 25.5 million in 2028.

NB-IoT/LTE-M is expected to be the fastest growing connectivity option at a CAGR of 35 percent during 2023–2028 to reach an installed base of around 13.2 million units in 2028 and accounting for as much as 60 percent of yearly shipment volumes at the end of the forecast period.

Another emerging technology trend is the anticipated increase in the use of hydrogen in European gas supply operations.

Mr. Carlsson concluded:

“Projects are currently underway in for example the UK and Italy that pilots metering devices capable of measuring either pure hydrogen or a blend of hydrogen and natural gas. The interest in hydrogen meters is anticipated to increase as the technology matures.”

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IoT Analytics has published a new analysis focusing on smart meters.

It is derived from the comprehensive “Global Smart Meter Market Tracker”. The tracker includes installed base, shipments and shipment revenues for electricity, gas and water smart meters. The current analysis underscores the global adoption rate of smart electricity meters in 2024, providing an in-depth regional exploration and market forecast.

Key insights:

• By the end of 2023, 1.06 billion smart meters (electricity, water and gas) have been installed worldwide, according to IoT Analytics’ Global Smart Meter Market Tracker 2020–2030.
• Smart meters enable utility service providers across the world to digitalize their distribution infrastructure and services efficiently with near real-time data.
• North America has the most mature smart electricity meter market, with nearly 77% electricity meter market penetration, while Latin America has largely lagged in its adoption of the technology. Some European Union countries and the East Asian region, too, have high rates of smart electricity meter market penetration.
• South Asia, Latin America, and Africa represent a high-growth potential for smart meters, as some regional governments have become convinced of the need to update their aging grid infrastructure and are more actively engaging with smart grid industry stakeholders to develop regulatory policies to drive the adoption of smart meters.

Key quotes:

Knud Lasse Lueth, CEO at IoT Analytics, remarks: “IoT-based smart electricity meters have become a reality in the world but adoption varies greatly by country and region with countries like Sweden, France, or Canada having completed or nearly completed their roll-outs while others like Germany are yet to start their initiative in a meaningful way. India is likely to see the largest roll-out in the coming years.”

Adarsh Krishnan, Principal Analyst at IoT Analytics, adds that: “Digital transformation is sweeping the utility industry as global service providers’ smart meter deployment, a foundational smart grid technology, exceeds installed base of 1 billion units. While advanced economies embrace feature-rich smart meters, emerging markets focus on more cost-effective solutions for their grid upgrades. Furthermore, future advancements in AI and edge computing will bring greater operational efficiencies and innovative consumer services, creating sustainable and resilient smart grids.”

By the end of 2023, Utility Service Providers (USPs) around the world will have installed over 1.06 billion smart (electricity, gas, and water) meters, according to IoT Analytics’ updated Global Smart Meter Market Tracker 2020–2030. As IoT devices, smart meters are enabling energy and water USPs to build resilience into their operations with near real-time data from their distribution networks. With sustainability and the digitalization of utilities gaining traction worldwide, the installed base of these devices is expected to exceed 1.75 billion by 2030 (CAGR 6%), making the smart meter market a market to watch closely.

Smart electricity meter adoption is far ahead of the adoption of smart gas and smart water meters at this point, though the picture could change by 2030, with smart gas and water meter adoption expected to grow at 10% and 16% CAGR, respectively.

While the tracker provides in-depth coverage of smart electricity, gas, and water meters across 52 countries and 5 regions—including installed base, shipments, revenue, market penetration, and connectivity technology—IoT Analytics plans to offer highlights for each smart meter submarket separately as its own article, starting here with smart electricity meters.

Global smart electricity meter market snapshot

As of late 2023, the smart electricity meter market achieved 43% penetration of the overall global electricity meter market, according to the market tracker.

Electricity grid modernization initiatives started in the late 2000s in Italy and the US and accelerated to national rollouts throughout the EU and APAC regions after 2010. Regulatory policies—supported by financial incentives from regional or national governments—have contributed to this growth, as these policies have encouraged utilities to replace mechanical electricity meters with smart meters to modernize their grid infrastructure.

However, as discussed below, not all parts of the world are modernizing their electricity infrastructure. According to the tracker, North America, Europe, and East Asia have had higher rates of smart electricity meter market penetration, but adoption rates still vary from country to country. Meanwhile, Latin America, Africa, and South Asia have been slow to initiate smart electricity meter projects across the board. Some countries have initiated large-scale smart electricity meter projects in recent years, though project implementation complexity, lack of regulatory policies, and cost hurdles have delayed rollouts in several countries.

Overall, the market for smart electricity meters looks promising, as the Smart Meter Market Tracker forecasts these IoT devices to achieve 54% adoption of the overall global electricity meter market by 2030.

Smart electricity meter market and adoption by region

While the smart meter market tracker shares market data down to the country level, the following are highlights about the smart electricity meter market at the regional level.

North America leads in smart electricity meter adoption

North America has the most mature smart electricity meter market, with nearly 77% electricity meter market penetration by the end of 2023.

In the US, smart electricity meters have 76% penetration in the overall electricity meter market as of 2023, driven by large-scale deployments from investor-owned utilities. Smart meter rollouts in the US are expected to slow down or plateau during the forecast period due to smart meter’s high penetration rate and long product life cycles. As municipalities with smaller budgets and cooperative-owned utilities replace their traditional electricity meters with smart meters, smart meter annual shipments in the US should see marginal growth through the rest of the decade.

Furthermore, the region will get a further boost in smart meter shipments, as Canadian utilities Fortis and Hydro One have announced plans in 2023 to replace their existing AMI with 2nd-generation smart meters.

The APAC region has the second most mature smart electricity meter market, driven by nationwide deployments in China and Japan.

Meanwhile, the APAC region has the largest addressable market for smart electricity meters, with over 1.1 billion electricity metering endpoints. In 2023, the APAC region accounted for almost 60% of the global smart meter installed base and more than 50% of annual smart meter shipments. In 2023, the region achieved a smart meter penetration rate of 49%, largely driven by successful nationwide rollouts in China and Japan. With planned nationwide deployments in Australia, South Korea, India, Indonesia, and Singapore, the region’s smart meter penetration is expected to reach 67% by the end of this decade.

Of note in this region, in 2021, India’s government set an ambitious goal of installing 250 million smart electricity meters by the end of 2025. To execute the implementation strategy, the government of India launched the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) not only to help financially support regional USP smart meter deployment and maintenance but also to expand the domestic manufacturing capacity to produce smart meters within India. By the end of 2023, India had achieved less than 3% of this goal, making it unlikely for this goal to be met before 2030. That said, by 2030, India is on track to become the single largest market for smart electricity meters in terms of annual shipment and revenue.

Europe comes third in smart meter adoption, though adoption differs greatly by country

Europe had 47% smart electricity meter market penetration across the continent at the end of 2023. France, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, and the Scandinavian countries initiated nationwide rollouts in the last decade, while Greece, Hungary, Poland, and Romania only started their initiatives more recently.

Germany, with over 50 million electricity metering points, has largely lagged in its adoption rate, with under 10% of smart electricity meters deployed to date. However, in early 2023, the government of Germany revamped its 2016 Metering Point Operation Act to speed up smart meter deployments, targeting a complete rollout by 2032. The new law stipulates binding deadlines for USPs with a roadmap that includes 20% rollout by the end of 2025, 50% by the end of 2028, and 95% by the end of 2030 for residential and small business consumers, with targets extending to 2032 for large consumers. However, there is strong market skepticism around achieving these deadlines due to the need for clarity from the government around financial support for USPs, AMI technical specifications, data privacy, and security governance framework.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE lead in the Middle East and Africa region

In the Middle East and Africa region, Saudi Arabia and UAE are leading the way in the implementation of smart meters for electricity. In 2022, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned USP Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) announced the successful deployment of approximately 11 million smart meters over three years. Meanwhile, the UAE, which already has 1.6 million smart electricity meters installed, is expected to complete its nationwide rollout by the end of 2029.

Latin America lags in smart electricity meter adoption

Finally, Latin America has seen the slowest smart electricity meter deployment, largely due to regulatory indecisiveness delaying project rollouts. Uruguay was the first country in the region to mandate a nationwide smart meter rollout, aiming for completion in 2026.

Analyst’s outlook on the electricity smart meter market

Though regional variations persist—with energy USPs in North America, Europe, and East Asia boasting much more mature markets than their counterparts—the regions of Southern Asia, Latin America, and Africa represent a high-growth potential for smart meters. Some key considerations for various stakeholders are as follows:

• Market saturation and marginal growth in advanced economies: The implementation of more advanced and feature-rich 2nd-generation smart meters is already underway or in the advanced planning stages in countries such as Sweden, Italy, Finland, and Canada. This is likely to marginally drive up the average selling price of smart electricity meters.
• Cost sensitivity in emerging markets: In regions such as South Asia, Latin America, and Africa, where penetration rates are lower, some national governments are convinced of the need to upgrade their aging grid infrastructure and are actively engaging with smart grid industry stakeholders to develop regulatory policies and standards to drive the adoption of smart meters. However, these are also cost-sensitive markets where low-cost smart meters are more likely to be successful.
• Smart meter supply chain diversification: Several countries (e.g., Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Brazil, India, and Indonesia) that are initiating large-scale rollouts are stipulating that smart meter OEMs localize the manufacturing of 40% or more of the smart meter demand.
• Regulatory policy uncertainties: Policy indecisiveness creates complex and uncertain environments for smart meter stakeholders, hindering innovation and investments that subsequently delay smart meter deployments, as seen in countries such as Brazil, India, Mexico, and South Africa.
• Future innovations and market trends: Innovations in ICs, edge computing, and AI (TinyML), as seen in 2nd-generation smart meters, may help reduce strain on communication networks, improve real-time responses to grid fluctuations, build resilience, and enhance data security and privacy.

Based on the Global Smart Meter Market Tracker 2020–2030, the traditional USP industry, once considered a laggard in adopting new technology innovations, is leading the digital transformation market with more than a billion smart meters and accelerating its digital footprint.

IoT Analytics will closely monitor this evolving USP industry and technology landscape to provide in-depth analysis and actionable insights into this market. Its next report on energy utilities (expected in Q2 2024) will provide a deep dive assessment of USPs in 10 countries to identify key trends in smart grid programs, such as distribution automation, green energy integration, and EV charging infrastructure.

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More than 60 percent of the electricity customers in EU27+3 had a smart meter at the end of 2023.

The market is set for stable growth with a total of more than 88 million smart electricity meters forecasted to be deployed across the region from 2024–2028. This was among other things concluded in the latest comprehensive study of the European smart metering market from the leading IoT analyst firm Berg Insight, which has closely tracked the development on this market since the company’s founding in 2004.

At the end of 2023, the EU27+3 region was home to more than 186 million smart electricity meters. Growing at a steady CAGR north of 6.1 percent, the installed base of smart electricity meters is expected to reach a penetration rate of 78 percent by 2028, driven by second-generation rollouts in countries such as the UK, Italy, Spain and Sweden alongside first-generation projects in Germany, Poland and Greece. The smart gas metering market is also set for robust growth in the EU27+3 region where the installed base of devices is forecasted to increase from 56 million units in 2023 to around 78 million units by 2028.

The composition of smart electricity shipment volumes is anticipated to change in two important ways, indicating a focus shift away from Western European markets which have historically been at the forefront in terms of smart metering deployments.

“Firstly, first-generation electricity meter shipment volumes will account for 67 percent of total shipment volumes throughout the forecast period, as second-generation rollouts in Western Europe are by now either in their final stages or fully completed. Secondly, the share of first-generation shipment volumes to countries located in the CEE and SEE regions will increase from 50 percent in 2022 to 80 percent in 2028,” said Mattias Carlsson, IoT Analyst at Berg Insight.

In the last years, the smart metering market has also undergone a shift related to the type of communications technologies being used for data exchange with the utility’s back office. Standalone wireless connectivity options have grown considerably in popularity in the past years and will account for between 55–65 percent of annual shipment volumes throughout the forecast period.

Mr. Carlsson concluded:

“Most of the growth is attributable to 3GPP-based LPWA connectivity options, which are now available in most European markets. Annual shipments of NB-IoT and LTE-M electricity meters are forecasted to be at a level of 3.5–4.0 million per year during the forecast period.”

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According to new a research report from the IoT analyst firm Berg Insight, the installed base of water utility AMI endpoints in Europe and North America is set to more than double during the period 2022–2028.

At the end of 2022, the combined installed base of AMI endpoints in Europe and North America amounted to 55.8 million units. This number is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13.0 percent to reach 116.4 million in 2028. The total number of communicating utility water meters – including both AMI and AMR – will at the same time grow from 155.1 million units in 2022 to 206.0 million units in 2028.

AMR includes metering points that require readings through drive-by or walk-by operations while AMI involves a fixed network communications infrastructure and supports true IoT connectivity.

“Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the growth of remote water meter reading technologies has been impeded by supply-chain disruptions, resulting in the postponement of several projects. With ongoing improvements in supply-chains coupled with significant commitment from numerous utilities to implement smart metering technologies, the outlook for the overall smart water metering market looks promising”, said Mattias Carlsson, IoT Analyst Berg Insight.

In terms of AMI connectivity, LoRaWAN and 3GPP-based LPWA technologies such as NB-IoT and LTE-M continue to be the fastest growing technology types for new water AMI deployments in Europe and North America.

In Europe, Spain has emerged as the leading European adopter of 3GPP-based LPWA communications for water AMI with several major utilities in the country now launching large-scale rollouts based on NB-IoT. The interest in 3GPP-based LPWA is also particularly strong in markets such as the UK, Italy and the Baltics while demand for LoRaWAN has so far been more widespread across the entire European region.

In North America, LTE-M currently constitutes the single fastest growing technology for new water AMI deployments while LoRaWAN has just started showing some growth after several years in the market.

“Proprietary and EN 13757-based RF communications technologies currently have a strong footprint in both the European and North American markets. These technologies are anticipated to remain pivotal connectivity options for water AMI projects in the foreseeable future. Nevertheless, emerging alternatives such as LoRaWAN and cellular communications are rapidly growing and are poised to capture a larger share of AMI shipments in the years ahead”, continued Mr. Carlsson.

At the end of 2022, the companies that had accumulated the largest installed bases of water AMI endpoints in Europe included Diehl Metering, Itron, Birdz (Veolia), Sensus (Xylem) and Kamstrup. The top five in North America were Sensus, Badger Meter, Itron, Aclara (Hubbell) and Neptune Technology Group. Top 10 vendors in either of the two regions moreover included the Minol-ZENNER Group, Honeywell, the Arad Group, Mueller Systems, Landis+Gyr, Apator and Maddalena. The SUEZ subsidiary SUEZ Smart Solutions also constitutes a key player in the European water AMI market by having been instrumental to the development and deployment of Wize technology.

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The energy landscape is evolving, and with it comes the transformation of utility services through the integration of the Internet of Things (IoT). Smart metering applications have emerged as a cornerstone of this change, revolutionizing the way energy consumption is monitored and managed. In this article, we will explore the pivotal role of IoT in smart metering, its key applications, benefits, challenges, and the promising future it holds for efficient resource management.

The IoT Revolution in Smart Metering

Smart metering represents a shift from traditional utility services to digital, data-driven systems. IoT is a key enabler in this transition, facilitating the collection, analysis, and management of energy consumption data in real time.

Key Applications of IoT in Smart Metering

1. Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI)

IoT technology forms the backbone of Advanced Metering Infrastructure, enabling the remote reading of utility meters. This includes electricity, water, and gas meters. Smart meters equipped with communication modules relay data to utility providers without the need for manual meter readings.

2. Real-Time Monitoring

IoT allows for real-time monitoring of energy consumption patterns. Consumers and utility providers can track usage patterns, detect anomalies, and make timely decisions based on this data.

3. Demand Response

IoT plays a crucial role in demand response programs. Utilities can remotely adjust energy consumption for specific appliances or entire households during peak demand periods. This helps balance the load on the grid and reduces the risk of blackouts.

4. Billing Accuracy

Smart metering applications ensure accurate billing based on real consumption data rather than estimates. This promotes transparency and minimizes billing disputes.

5. Environmental Sustainability

IoT in smart metering supports sustainability initiatives by monitoring and managing resource consumption. This reduces energy waste and promotes responsible energy use.

6. Prepaid Utility Services

IoT-enabled meters can be used for prepaid utility services. Consumers can prepay for energy, and the meter system will automatically disconnect the service when the prepaid balance is depleted.

7. Remote Disconnect and Reconnect

Utility providers can remotely disconnect and reconnect service, eliminating the need for physical interventions and improving operational efficiency.

8. Energy Analytics

IoT in smart metering applications provides valuable data for energy analytics. Utilities and consumers can gain insights into consumption patterns, identify areas for improvement, and make informed decisions about energy use.

Benefits of IoT in Smart Metering

The integration of IoT in smart metering offers numerous advantages:

1. Improved Accuracy

Smart meters equipped with IoT technology provide precise data, eliminating estimation errors in billing.

2. Enhanced Efficiency

IoT-enabled smart metering applications reduce the need for manual meter readings, streamlining the process and freeing up resources for other tasks.

3. Cost Savings

The efficient use of resources and real-time data analysis leads to cost savings for both consumers and utility providers.

4. Reduced Energy Waste

IoT technology enables better monitoring and management of energy use, leading to reduced energy waste and more sustainable consumption.

5. Demand Management

IoT supports demand management by allowing utilities to adjust consumption during peak periods, ensuring the stability of the grid.

6. Enhanced Customer Experience

Real-time monitoring and transparency in billing improve the customer experience by putting consumers in control of their energy use.

7. Sustainability

IoT in smart metering is aligned with sustainability goals by promoting responsible energy use and environmental conservation.

Challenges and Considerations

While IoT in smart metering applications offers numerous benefits, it also poses challenges and considerations:

1. Data Security and Privacy

Collecting and transmitting sensitive consumption data raise concerns about data security and privacy. Robust security measures must be in place to protect consumer information.

2. Data Transmission

Reliable data transmission is crucial for accurate readings and analysis. Ensuring that IoT devices are connected and functioning correctly is essential.

3. Compatibility

IoT devices and systems must be compatible and standardized to ensure seamless data exchange and integration. Common protocols and standards are necessary for achieving this.

4. Regulatory Compliance

Smart metering applications must adhere to regulatory requirements, particularly regarding data protection, billing accuracy, and service disconnection protocols.

5. Consumer Engagement

Effective implementation requires consumer education and engagement to ensure that consumers understand the benefits and are comfortable with the technology.

The Future of IoT in Smart Metering

As technology continues to advance, the future of IoT in smart metering looks promising. Here are some trends and developments to watch for:

1. Blockchain Technology

Blockchain can enhance the security and integrity of smart metering data, ensuring data accuracy and privacy.

2. AI and Machine Learning

AI and machine learning will be used to analyze vast amounts of consumption data, providing insights into patterns and optimizing energy use.

3. Edge Computing

Edge computing will enable data processing closer to the source, reducing latency and ensuring real-time monitoring and response.

4. Energy Storage Integration

IoT-enabled smart metering will integrate with energy storage solutions, allowing consumers to optimize their use of renewable energy sources and reduce dependence on the grid.

5. Electric Vehicle Charging

Smart metering will support electric vehicle charging infrastructure, enabling convenient and efficient charging for electric vehicles.

Conclusion

The Internet of Things is transforming smart metering, offering precise data collection, enhanced efficiency, and sustainability. Challenges related to data security, compatibility, and consumer engagement must be addressed to ensure that the benefits of IoT in smart metering applications are fully realized.

As IoT technology continues to evolve, it will remain a driving force in the utility sector, offering a glimpse into a future where energy consumption is more transparent, efficient, and sustainable, ultimately benefitting both consumers and the environment.

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• Using Telit Cinterion’s cellular LPWA modules and IoT connectivity solutions, WaterSignal transfers water data independent of a power source
• WaterSignal, an innovator in the water conservation space, leverages Telit Cinterion’s technology to ensure always-on connectivity for its water monitoring system

Telit Cinterion, a global enabler of the intelligent edge, today announced that it is working with WaterSignal to ensure always-on connectivity to its real-time water monitoring and leak detection systems.

As water scarcity continues to increase worldwide, baseline water benchmarking and evaluation have become critical, requiring operation teams for domestic meters, irrigation systems and cooling towers to have reliable access to on-demand data. Through WaterSignal’s remote water monitoring capabilities – supported by cellular LPWA modules and IoT connectivity solutions – teams gain deeper insights into their towers and systems’ efficiencies while eliminating the need to perform repetitive, manual day-to-day meter readings.

WaterSignal’s real-time water monitoring and leak detection system enables make-up and blow-down meter monitoring for cooling towers, helping teams search for leaks proactively, mitigate water loss and damage and justify evaporation credits with local municipalities. The unique technology is non-invasive, unlike others, WaterSignal’s solutions attach to any existing water meter without a disruptive installation, significantly reducing costs while eliminating the need for additional city approval.

In light of ongoing and worsening power outages, WaterSignal needed to transfer water data independent of a power source. The company also needed a trusted and dependable technology partner for cellular IoT connectivity and network services. Because of these requirements, WaterSignal turned to Telit Cinterion’s cellular LPWA modules and IoT connectivity solutions for their units.

Telit Cinterion’s cellular LPWA supports various devices, from point-of-sale terminals and smart meters to industrial sensors and asset management. Its modules include Power Saving Mode (PSM) and extended Discontinuous Reception (eDRX), ideal for increasing IoT application power saving and battery life when backed by networks. The cellular LPWA module family form factor also allows developers to employ a “design once, use anywhere” strategy, helping them decrease costs, truncate development time and deploy the most optimal technologies for the application’s environment. In addition to providing superior performance for the module, the radio frequency front-end (RFFE) engineering delivers reliable connections, even for IoT devices in hard-to-reach locations typical of a water monitoring setting.

“Telit Cinterion is a leading IoT provider and was selected because of its excellent reputation for quality modules, which later expanded to its IoT connectivity network services,” said Mike Drake, Vice President of Engineering, WaterSignal.

“WaterSignal can ensure connectivity for customers via cellular data rather than Wi-Fi. It does not require a connection to power. This capability provides a more stable connection. It allows the WaterSignal device to communicate, even in deep vaults or locations far away from buildings with Wi-Fi.”

“When monitoring critical resources, like water, a reliable connection is pivotal to maintaining visibility and extracting actionable insights,” said Neset Yalcinkaya, SVP Sales Americas, Telit Cinterion. “WaterSignal’s technology is invaluable for operation teams, and we are pleased that Telit Cinterion’s cellular LPWA modules and IoT connectivity solutions are central to providing that essential connection, particularly the ability to use cellular instead of Wi-Fi to transfer water data independently of a power source during an outage.”

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KAIFA¹ and UnaBiz², announce strategic partnership to accelerate the global deployment of smart water metering solutions empowered by Sigfox 0G technology, including collaboration to bring Sigfox 0G and LoRa dual-mode hybrid solution to market.

Henry Chan, Global Sales Director of KAIFA says, “KAIFA is proud to join forces with UnaBiz in this transformative endeavor. By leveraging UnaBiz’s renowned expertise in bespoke IoT solutions, and the tremendous potential for energy-efficiency enabled by the Sigfox 0G technology, we aim to bring to the market high-quality advanced water metering solutions that are not only accurate and reliable but also cost-competitive, scalable and environmentally friendly to the water metering sector.”

Loic Barrancourt, Chief Commercial Officer of UnaBiz Group says, “We are excited to partner with KAIFA, a leader in Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) solution to not only drive efficiency but also promote sustainability, making a positive impact on communities worldwide. KAIFA’s quality excellence and UnaBiz’s design capabilities are key ingredients to bringing an integrated fit-for-purpose solution to end customers to enable Massive IoT. We look forward to working closely with KAIFA to bring on a new era of efficiency and sustainability in the realm of water resource management.”

The dynamic duo has already achieved success in various parts of the globe even before the official partnership announcement. Most recently, Iguá Saneamento, Brazilian water and sewerage services supplier, has partnered with KAIFA and WND Brazil to roll out 120,000 smart water meters powered by Sigfox 0G technology.

Jose Almeida – Deputy Chief Executive Officer of WND Brazil said:

“Sigfox 0G technology’s energy-efficient design aligns with Iguá Saneamento’s commitment to sustainability. Reduced power consumption and extended device lifecycles ultimately contribute to a greener and more eco-conscious future. We are certain the collaboration between UnaBiz and KAIFA will pave the way for smarter, more sustainable solutions in water resource management across the globe.”

UnaBiz and KAIFA‘s combined global footprint will allow the partners to address the unique needs of diverse markets. The pair will focus on specific regions like Europe, the Middle East, and Central and South America to accelerate and magnify its prevailing success.

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WaterMeter Corp, in collaboration with WND Mexico and UnaBiz, is pleased to announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to revolutionise water management in Mexico.

This strategic alliance aims to deploy 1 million water meters with Sigfox 0G technology throughout Mexico over the next 10 years, offering innovative solutions for accurate, efficient, and sustainable measurement of water, gas and electricity for the benefit of communities and the environment.

Empowering Water Management with Sigfox 0G Technology

WaterMeter Corp has forged a high-impact alliance with WND Mexico and UnaBiz to introduce 1 million water measurement solutions based on Sigfox 0G technology in Mexico. Leveraging WND’s 0G Network, this collaboration will facilitate the efficient monitoring and management of water resources.

WND Mexico: Facilitating Connectivity Without Borders

As the operator of the 0G Network in Mexico, WND Mexico is committed to providing extensive coverage crucial to the successful deployment of water metering solutions powered by Sigfox 0G technology across the country. This alliance reinforces WND Mexico’s dedication to supporting innovative IoT solutions.

UnaBiz: Pioneers in the Future of Water Management

As the owner of Sigfox 0G technology, UnaBiz guarantees the continuity and longevity of the network and services in Mexico for the next 15 years. With a strong track record of connecting more than 2 million gas and water meters worldwide through the global 0G network, UnaBiz brings unparalleled experience to this transformative collaboration.

WaterMeter Corp

Committed to Sustainability and Efficiency, WaterMeter Corp, an expert in water measurement solutions, confidently embraces Sigfox 0G technology because of its ability to communicate equipment in a dispersed or sectorised way without the need to install concentrator antennas, repeaters or gateways on public poles. This decision underscores its commitment to providing cost-effective and sustainable water metering solutions for municipalities in Mexico.

A Shared Vision for Sustainable Water Management

This alliance between WaterMeter Corp, WND Mexico, and UnaBiz is based on a shared long-term business vision. Recognising the critical importance of security, stability, and continuity in the utility market, the trio aims to redefine water measurement in Mexico and beyond.

The fundamental objective is to multiply success stories based on projects with successful investment returns; UnaBiz, WND and WaterMeter Corp are willing to revolutionise the administration and management of water, gas, and electricity with cutting-edge technology.

Currently, the 0G network covers more than 60% of the national population with the commitment to deploy in a few days. After the success of the first stage applied to horizontal and vertical condominiums nationwide, the second step has been called: “essence the IoT technology for everyone, everywhere”.

Marco Mendoza, CEO of WaterMeter Corp:
“Our customers expect water metering solutions that meet their basic needs: accounting for 100% of water, gas or electricity effectively (day, week or month), with cost-effective and operationally practical solutions, and that fit their implementation budgets. This is precisely why we are committed to the Sigfox 0G technology, which allows us to read meters remotely cost-effectively, predictably, and extremely energy-efficiently. Together with WND Mexico and UnaBiz, we will connect millions of water meters in Mexico.”

Daniel Philippe Guevara, CEO of WND Mexico:
“We are excited to partner with WaterMeter Corp (certified in IoT Network for utilities with Sigfox 0G technology) and UnaBiz to pave the way to a smarter and more sustainable Mexico. As the operator of Mexico’s 0G Network, WND Mexico is fully dedicated to providing solid coverage essential for deploying IoT solutions powered by Sigfox 0G technology, including water metering. We share a long-term vision with WaterMeter Corp, recognising the importance of safety, stability, and continuity in the utility market. We hope to transform the smart water metering landscape with 1 million connected water meters over the next 10 years.”

Henri Bong, CEO and Co-founder of UnaBiz:
“At UnaBiz, we are committed to leveraging our experience as owners of Sigfox 0G technology to ensure the continuity and durability of the network and services in Mexico for the next 15 years. With a proven track record of connecting more than 2.6 million meters around the world through the Sigfox 0G network, we are confident that, together with WaterMeter Corp, we will deliver water metering solutions that will help Mexican municipalities address the challenges of water scarcity, non-technical losses, and water leaks.”

“With a long-term business vision, our goal is to modernise the water management system in Mexico, promote water conservation and ensure the country’s sustainable and efficient use of water resources.”

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A new research report from the IoT analyst firm Berg Insight reveals that the penetration of smart electricity meters in Latin America^* reached 6.2 percent in 2022.

The installed base of smart electricity meters is forecasted to grow at an impressive compound annual growth rate of 21.7 percent during 2022–2028 to reach a total of 38.4 million units at the end of the forecast period, up from around 11.7 million units in 2022.

The smart metering market in Latin America is becoming increasingly interesting for a variety of smart meter players, as a number of utilities across the region are increasing their investments in AMI infrastructure. Over the next six years, the penetration rate of smart meters in Latin America’s by far largest market Brazil will increase from a mere 5.7 percent in 2022 to 21.5 percent in 2028. Brazil and Mexico will account for close to 80 percent of the total smart meter shipments during the forecast period.

Mattias Carlsson, IoT Analyst at Berg Insight, said:

“The number of meter installations in Latin America will continue to grow in the coming years and will be driven by the expansion of ongoing smart metering projects and new major projects. Besides the major markets Brazil and Mexico, countries like Colombia and Peru will grow their share of annual shipment volumes from around 4 percent in 2022 to over 16 percent by 2028. Colombia for example is forecasted to increase annual shipment volumes tenfold, whereas Peru will increase annual shipment volumes sixteenfold during the forecast period.”

According to the newly released study, yearly shipments of smart electricity meters in Latin America will grow from around 1.9 million units in 2022 to over 6.1 million in 2028. This makes Latin America one of the fastest growing smart metering markets worldwide.

The use cases in Latin America include remote meter reading, fault detection, distribution automation and measuring power quality.

Mr. Carlsson concluded:

“As Latin America is poised for significant growth in the coming years, the race has begun between the top meter vendors to gain market share in the region. To date, Chinese smart meter vendors have achieved significant success in Latin America. One key contributing factor is their ability to offer competitive pricing, a crucial aspect for the price-sensitive utilities operating in the region.”

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Newly Launched AMI Essentials Features Intelis wSource NB-IoT Water Meter and Temetra NB-IoT Digital Platform for Water AMI.

Itron, Inc., which is innovating the way utilities and cities manage energy and water, announced the launch of AMI Essentials in Australia and New Zealand to accelerate the digital transformation of water utilities.

The end-to-end solution includes the new Itron Intelis wSource NB-IoT water meter and Temetra NB-IoT digital platform for advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). As utilities in the region face growing water stress and aging utility infrastructure, AMI provides the foundation to mitigate the impact of these challenges. AMI Essentials eases the adoption of AMI with an end-to-end solution that brings together devices and a data platform with integrated analytics in an easy-to-deploy package that is tailored to the market. The solution establishes a strong foundation to seamlessly deploy value-added use cases to address water losses, improve operations and enhance consumer engagement.

AMI Essentials for water is a flexible and open standards-based, end-to-end solution that provides a fully integrated software suite for data collection, meter data management and device management. Utilities can easily collect, track and manage data from multiple metering devices. The solution features Itron’s Temetra MDM platform to collect and manage data, enabling use cases, such as meter reading, work order management, asset management and water usage analytics. The end-to-end solution includes options for connectivity and other services to optimize planning, deployment and operations, and assess connectivity risks. This helps improve service quality and reliability.

Additional key benefits of the solution, include:

• Easy migration from manual meter reading to AMI. Maximizes the business case, reduces pain points around AMI deployment, implementation and operations. One single platform for all meter data.
• Reduces risk of technology dependency. Open standards reduce the risk of standardizing on one technology platform and provide interoperability with multiple communication service providers as well as integration within the IT infrastructure.
• Standard packaged solutions. Simplify adoption for smaller utilities and cities, including standard scope of services and use cases.
• Maximum robustness. Durable meter components and battery designed to enable a 15-year lifetime even in harsh conditions.

Don Reeves, senior vice president of Outcomes at Itron, said:

“Across Australia and New Zealand, diverse and extremely challenging environmental conditions make it necessary to ensure that aging infrastructure maintains a long lifespan. Itron AMI Essentials for water will help utilities mitigate the impacts of climate disruption and address asset management and leakage challenges.”

“Itron has a long history of supporting utilities in Australia and New Zealand, and we look forward to expanding our offerings with this end-to-end solution. Itron’s local support and knowledge coupled with our global expertise in water markets, AMI deployments and cellular communications will greatly benefit utilities in the region. We are excited to bring this comprehensive solution to help water utilities achieve their digital transformation goals.”

Solution Details

Intelis NB-IoT Water Meter

Now available with Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) connectivity, the Intelis wSource water meter is engineered to maintain the highest level of accuracy over its entire lifetime, connect easily to several data collection systems and generate extensive data from the water network. It is the only water meter available today that is MID-certified up to R1000 accuracy, a new standard in precision for measuring water consumption at low-flows and increasing accuracy in customer billing. With low-to-no maintenance solid-state ultrasonic technology, the Intelis wSource meter maintains accuracy in harsh conditions and delivers long-lasting performance in the field lowering costs with fewer repairs and replacements. This allows water utilities to quickly detect leaks and provide more accurate billing to customers, resulting in improved customer satisfaction as well as revenue protection with more accurate billing.

The Intelis wSource NB-IoT water meter features data connectivity options designed to ensure all meter data is made available to water operation centers. Intelis wSource NB IoT features AMR backup to protect data if the cellular network fails.

Temetra NB-IoT digital platform and Temetra Analysis

Itron’s Temetra NB-IoT data collection and data management system provides a best-in-class platform for critical meter data management business processes. It currently supports over 30 customers and more than 2 million endpoints in Australia and New Zealand, and over 45 million worldwide. Temetra provides a platform for metering data unification, validation and dispatching to customer domain systems and addresses key processes such as long data storage, network monitoring and asset inventory and troubleshooting. It also provides out-of-the-box alarm management, including critical alarm management and operational analytics like abnormal consumption detection.

Temetra Analysis delivers measurable results that address non-revenue water (NRW) losses in the water distribution system. It improves operational visibility, minimizes leaks, maximizes return on investment on meter replacements, streamlines pressure management, reduces labor costs, optimizes network operations and proactively improves the customer experience. These outcomes help utilities identify, prioritize and take action to reduce NRW for both real and apparent water losses in the distribution network.

Availability

AMI Essentials for water, including the Itron Intelis wSource NB-IoT water meter and Temetra NB-IoT digital platform, are now available for testing in Australia and New Zealand. To learn more, see the product brochure.

The post Itron Accelerates Digital Transformation of Water Utilities in Australia and New Zealand appeared first on IoT Business News.

Low-Power, Secure Chipset is Ideal for Huge Indian Smart Metering Market.

Renesas Electronics Corporation, today introduced an NB-IoT (Narrowband Internet of Things) chipset specifically for the Indian market.

The new RH1NS200 is an LTE NB-IoT modem chipset that is designed to operate seamlessly on the networks of all major Indian telecommunications carriers. It is an ideal solution to serve the Indian smart metering market, which some estimates put at roughly 250 million units1 over the next five years. Customers can use it to build complete NB-IoT modules to satisfy “Make in India” requirements. The new chipset also can be used in asset tracking, lighting, security and numerous other applications.

The RH1NS200 chipset offers extremely low power consumption of only 1uA in deep sleep mode, significantly extending battery life. It also provides an integrated EAL5+ (Evaluation Assurance Level) Secure Element (SE) that provides zero compromise on security to ensure the safety of end applications, particularly power and water metering systems. The RH1NS200 is part of Renesas’ next-generation family of NB-IoT solutions.

Increased Focus on the Indian Market

Renesas has recently increased focus on the Indian market with several new initiatives. In March of 2022, Renesas established its Next Generation EV Innovation Center (NEVIC) with Tata Elxsi, a global leader in design and technology services. In June 2022 Renesas announced a strategic partnership with Tata Motors Ltd. (TML) and Tejas Networks Ltd. (Tejas), both Tata Group companies, on the design, development and manufacturing of Renesas’ semiconductor solutions for enhancing innovation across electronics systems for the Indian and emerging markets. Then in March of this year, Renesas and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) announced the opening of a joint Innovation Center in Bengaluru and Hyderabad to collaborate on radio frequency, digital and mixed-signal design, and software development for innovative next generation semiconductor solutions. Renesas is currently working with Tata Elxsi to implement NB-IoT-based solutions that operate on the networks of major telecom carriers in India.

Sailesh Chittipeddi, Executive Vice President & General Manager, IoT and Infrastructure Business Unit, Renesas, said:

“Renesas recognizes India’s enormous potential in terms of both market size and design talent, and we are committed to taking part in future growth driven by the Digital India Act.”

“This leading-edge NB-IoT solution is a prime example of tailoring our design and manufacturing strengths to meet the unique needs of this market.”

“We are pleased to have partnered with Renesas to design and develop NB-IoT solutions and reference designs targeting smart applications ranging from water and energy meters to asset tracking. Our collaboration and trials in live 4G and 5G networks in India ensure that our offerings are not only technologically advanced but also market ready. Our expert technology team, as well as our extensive integration, customization, and productization services are fully aligned with Renesas to provide customers with the support they need to easily adopt and scale NB-IoT applications, helping drive the next generation of intelligent infrastructure and services,” said Manoj Raghavan, CEO and Managing Director of Tata Elxsi.

Key Features of the RH1NS200 LTE NB-IoT chipset

• Targets bands 1,3, 5 and 8 for India
• Low PSM of 1µA in deep sleep with longer eDRX cycles
• Support for transmit power (Tx) of up to 23dBm for all bands reduces transmission retries
• Field proven and Carrier approved LTE protocol stack and software suite
• Wide operating supply voltage range of 2.2V to 5.5V

Renesas is offering the RH1NB200-EVK, a full development kit with integrated multi-band antenna and access to all module I/O ports. In addition, a software development kit (SDK) is available that can control the LTE modem, platform I/Os, and customize AT commands.

RH1NS200 Winning Combinations

Renesas will combine the new RH1NS200 chipset with compatible devices from its portfolio to offer Winning Combinations for various applications. These Winning Combinations are technically vetted system architectures from mutually compatible devices that work together seamlessly to bring an optimized, low-risk design for faster time to market. Renesas offers more than 300 Winning Combinations with a wide range of products from the Renesas portfolio to enable customers to speed up the design process and bring their products to market more quickly.

Availability

The RH1NS200 chipset and RH1NB200-EVK are available today in India only. Renesas will also offer the Indian market the new RH1NB200 LTE NB-IOT Module that includes a complete RF front end for quick time-to-market. Customers can get more information by contacting the Renesas Indian sales team at offices in Bengaluru, Mumbai, New Delhi or Pune.

The post Renesas Expands Focus on India with New NB-IoT Solution appeared first on IoT Business News.

Sequans Communications S.A. announced that Next Meters, a leading provider of utility metering equipment, is using its Monarch 2 LTE-M/NB-IoT platform to provide the connectivity for new utility metering solutions in North America.

Next Meters’ new line of outdoor metering products will allow municipalities and utility companies to take advantage of smart metering technology regardless of the life-cycle stage of their existing metering systems. From augmenting existing meters, to full solution deployments, Next Meters’ product line allows customers to grow into a solution that makes sense for them every step of the way.

Adam Paul CEO, Next Meters, said:

“We selected Sequans Monarch 2 because of its demonstrated live network performance in coverage and power consumption, and especially because of its integrated eSIM with top Common Criteria EAL5+ security rating.”

“The maturity and reliability of Sequans’ technology is unsurpassed in the industry and Monarch 2 is an ideal solution for our metering systems application.”

“Next Meters is quickly becoming a leader in the utility metering market and we are pleased to support their strategy with our Monarch 2 technology,” said Louis Chuang, EVP of Sequans Massive IoT division. “Municipalities and utility providers will benefit greatly from the high quality and elegantly simple solutions provided by Next Meters.”

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Via a robust LoRaWAN® infrastructure, smart meters reduced human error by more than 80% compared to manual reading.

Semtech Corporation announced that Sindcon (Singapore) IoT Technology Pte Ltd, a provider of low power wide area network (LPWAN) Internet of Things (IoT) metering solutions, and IoT Kreasi Indonesia, an end-to-end IoT solution provider, have leveraged Semtech’s LoRa® devices and the LoRaWAN® standard for its battery-powered smart water and electricity meters.

Use of LoRa devices and LoRaWAN streamline smart utilities operations for smart buildings.

For larger buildings with several tenants, manual metering can be a labor-intensive process and is prone to human error, resulting in unfair billing. Sindcon and IoT Kreasi Indonesia developed its battery-powered smart meters utilizing LoRaWAN to eliminate the manual energy and water meter reading process entirely. The smart meters further benefit from LoRaWAN connectivity for remote control of the water meters to open and close the water valve as needed.

“When designing our smart meters, reliability and constant connectivity where the key factors,” said Deyu Chen, CEO and co-founder of Sindcon.

“The robustness of LoRaWAN helped us to achieve over 90% data success rate. In addition, its low power capabilities extend battery life of up to seven years.”

This deployment of water and electricity meters installed in tall buildings is typical of dense urban environments with over 20,000 habitants per km² proving that LoRaWAN can support high density while ensuring a remaining capacity to add other applications in future.

The success of the smart meters has been seen in the LLOYD apartment complex located in Indonesia that covers a total area of .045 per km² (4.5 Ha) with 27 towers.

“Implementing LoRaWAN for the smart meter solutions was a key factor in the overall success of the LLOYD deployment,” said Aldi Kurniawan, CEO and co-founder of IoT Kreasi Indonesia. “Due to the improved billing transparency, LLOYD tenant satisfaction increased more than 50% and are now empowered to monitor their own utilities usage daily with no surprise bill at the end.”

“LoRaWAN is meeting the needs of the smart building segment,” said Marc Pégulu, vice president and general manager for Semtech’s Wireless and Sensing Products Group.

“Alongside Semtech’s LoRa devices, the ability to enable efficient and economical use of a building’s resources, while creating a safe and comfortable for its tenants, highlight Semtech’s commitment toward creating a smarter planet.”

The post Semtech’s LoRa® Devices and the LoRaWAN® Standard Optimize Smart Metering with Sindcon appeared first on IoT Business News.

A new research report from the IoT analyst firm Berg Insight reveals that the penetration of smart electricity meters in North America reached 74 percent in 2021.

Overall, the installed base of smart electricity meters will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 4.8 percent during 2021–2027 to reach a total of 173.4 million units at the end of the forecast period. Over the next six years, the penetration of smart meters in the US will increase to reach a level of 93 percent while the respective figure for the more advanced Canadian market will be slightly higher at 94 percent.

Mattias Carlsson, IoT Analyst at Berg Insight, said:

“First-wave deployments will continue to grow in the coming years and will be driven by the launch of major new projects by late adopters in the Northeastern US and Eastern Canada. Meanwhile, second-wave rollouts for early adopters are now also ramping up and will grow their share of annual shipment volumes from around 12 percent in 2021 to around 75 percent by 2027.”

According to the study, yearly shipments of smart electricity meters in North America will grow from 10.7 million units in 2021 to 17.3 million units in 2027. The Covid-19 pandemic had a notable impact on deployments during 2020 with a year-over-year decrease of around 13 percent in annual shipment volumes. The market has since experienced an increase in shipments and the number of yearly shipments is expected to peak in 2024 at 18.4 million units and thereafter slightly decrease to a level of 17 million units until the end of the forecast period.

Alongside the increase in replacement smart meter projects, the development of smart metering technology in the North American market has in the last couple of years shifted focus to serving new demands beyond smart metering. The utilities are now looking to leverage their existing network canopies for a wider array of smart city applications while also trying to figure out how to cope with the integration of the rapidly increasing number of electric vehicles and distributed energy resources into the grid infrastructure.

“The race has begun between the top vendors to develop and successfully commercialize the most attractive use cases for second-wave smart metering technology. Besides increased computing power and edge analytics capabilities that enable a new set of benefits, utilities are more and more looking to integrate multiple smart city applications into a single solution”, concluded Mr. Carlsson.

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According to a new report from the IoT analyst firm Berg Insight, the installed base of smart gas meters in Europe amounted to 45.9 million units in 2021, equal to a penetration rate of 38 percent.

The installed base will continue to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.7 percent between 2021 and 2027, reaching 75.9 million units at the end of the period. Annual shipment volumes amounted to 6.6 million in 2021 and are expected to gradually decrease in the coming years with the completion of several large-scale nationwide rollouts. France, the UK, Italy and the Netherlands were the most active markets in 2021, together accounting for close to 95 percent of all smart gas meter shipments during the year. While the rollouts in Italy, France and the Netherlands will soon be completed, the UK market is on the other hand after several delays expected to ramp up yearly installations to reach a high of 3.4–3.6 million units per year during 2023–2025. Belgium and Ireland are two other markets that are expected to contribute with significant shipment volumes in the next few years.

The smart gas meters deployed in Europe have over the past years not been networked in quite the same way as their counterparts in the electricity sector. A common model, observed for example in the UK, the Netherlands and Belgium, is to utilize a local wireless or wired interface to transmit gas data via the customer’s smart electricity meter. A mix of 169 MHz RF and 2G/3G cellular communications has meanwhile been the primary model for the largest projects in which smart gas meters have been deployed independently of smart electricity meters, such as in Italy and France. A change of the status quo might now however be on the horizon as new types of LPWA technologies have become more readily available in the past couple of years.

Mattias Carlsson, IoT Analyst at Berg Insight, said:

“The Italian gas sector became the first in Europe to initiate large-scale adoption of NB-IoT as a primary smart meter connectivity choice and in 2021 the installed base of gas meters with NB-IoT connectivity almost doubled in the country to reach 1.7 million at the end of the year.”

The composition of communication technology in the installed base of smart gas meters is thus expected to shift in the coming years. In 2021, 169 MHz RF was the most common communications technology with a market share of 40 percent. By 2027, Zigbee is expected to surpass 169 MHz RF to become the most prevalent connectivity option with an installed base of close to 24.9 million units. NB-IoT/LTE-M is moreover expected to grow with an impressive CAGR of 35.6 percent during 2022–2027 to reach an installed base of 10.7 million units in 2027, making it the third most common connectivity option on the European smart gas meter market.

Another emerging technology trend is the anticipated increase in the use of hydrogen in European gas supply operations. “As the properties of hydrogen differ significantly from those of natural gas, meter vendors will have to put in place relevant technological and strategic roadmaps in order to position themselves in the new European renewable energy sector”, concluded Mr. Carlsson.

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More than 56 percent of the electricity customers in EU27+3 had a smart meter at the end of 2022

The market is set for robust growth in the coming years with a total of 106 million smart electricity meters forecasted to be deployed across the region during 2022–2027. This could be concluded in the latest study of the European smart metering market from the leading IoT analyst firm Berg Insight, which has closely tracked the development of the market since the company’s inception in 2004. At the end of 2021, the EU27+3 region was home to nearly 163 million smart electricity meters, corresponding to a penetration rate of 53 percent. Growing at a robust CAGR of 5.8 percent, the installed base of smart electricity meters is expected to reach a penetration rate of 74 percent by 2027, driven by large rollouts in the UK, Poland and eventually also Germany and Greece in combination with nationwide rollouts in several small- and mid-sized countries. The European smart gas metering market will meanwhile increase its installed base of devices from 46 million units in 2021 to 76 million units in 2027.

The composition of annual smart electricity shipment volumes is expected to change significantly over the coming years as rollouts in many markets in Western and Northern Europe are now either well-advanced or largely completed. An ongoing trend that is spreading across Europe is second-generation smart metering deployments in countries such as Italy, the Nordics, Spain and the Netherlands.

“In fact, replacements of first-generation smart metering equipment are expected to account for nearly a third of the cumulative device shipments until 2027”, said Mattias Carlsson, IoT Analyst at Berg Insight.

In terms of first-generation projects, the 10 fastest growing market during 2022–2027 will meanwhile all be in Central Eastern and Southeastern Europe – a trend that confirms that focus is shifting away from Western European markets that historically have been the center of attention of the European smart metering market throughout the past decade.

Another ongoing trend is the change related to communications technologies being used for data exchange with the utility back office. Berg Insight estimates that standalone wireless connectivity options will grow their annual share of smart electricity meter shipment volumes from 33 percent in 2021 to 57 percent in 2027.

Mr. Carlsson concluded:

“Most of the growth will be attributable to the rise of 3GPP-based LPWA connectivity services, which have become available in most European markets in the past couple of years. Annual European shipments of NB-IoT and LTE-M smart electricity meters are forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 18.0 percent during 2021–2027, from 1.4 million units in 2021 to 3.7 million in 2027.”

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Friendly Technologies recently signed with several system integration companies to manage IoT-enabled utility meters globally.

Friendly Technologies, the IoT and Device Management company, enters the realm of smart utilities with multiple new Internet of Things projects spanning the globe.

Alongside the recent upgrade to Friendly IoT version 6.3.0 for telcos and IoT enterprises worldwide, Friendly Technologies will now manage tens of millions of IoT-enabled smart meters for water, gas, and heating utilities.

Friendly IoT version 6.3.0 helps Friendly Technologies” customers introduce new projects and verticals with ease. Friendly’s new Application Enablement Platform combined with the Friendly One-IoT device management software allows organizations to manage devices, collect and analyze data, implement automated workflows, integrations, multi-tenancies, access control, create unique dashboards, and more – all in one user-friendly interface.

The E2E device management platform from Friendly Technologies also stands out with its scalability – able to scale en masse without skipping a beat, as well as the capability to be deployed on-cloud or on-premise.

Friendly Technologies began its journey in 1997 and currently has over 250 active customers worldwide. Some of the most significant communication service providers, including Tier-1 telecommunication and IoT-enabled businesses, use the Friendly IoT Device Management platform to provision, manage, and monitor their devices. It is an active member of the Broadband Forum and the Open Mobile Alliance, always staying future-ready. In addition to provisioning, management, and monitoring of devices, the Friendly IoT Management platform comes with robust security features and integrations with third-party tools, such as Microsoft Azure IoT and others.

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Itron, Inc., which is innovating the way utilities and cities manage energy and water, announced that PUB, Singapore’s national water agency, is leveraging SP Group’s existing Itron industrial IoT network canopy for smart water metering.

The smart water metering rollout will connect some 300,000 Itron residential and C&I smart water meters to the existing network to achieve its water conservation goals.

The deployment, which is managed by Singapore’s national electricity and gas network operator, SP Group, is an important part of PUB’s Smart Water Meter Program, which aims to transform the organization into a smart utility. The first phase of the Smart Water Meter Program will be rolled out in Bukit Batok, Hougang, Jurong West, Tampines and Tuas, as well as in the new housing estates of Tampines North and Tengah.

With smart water meters, meter readings can be done remotely on a daily basis, eliminating the labor-intensive manual meter reading process which is currently read every two months. Households and businesses can track their daily water usage on their MySmartWaterMeter account, hence giving them greater visibility and control over their water usage to conserve resources. Users can also receive timely notifications on high usage and suspected leaks in their household or premises. This will enable households and non-domestic customers to better understand their water usage pattern, be empowered to adjust their water habits, and ultimately, save on utility bills. The rollout of smart meters at scale will be a major boost to water conservation efforts.

“We are excited to see SP Group’s existing Itron network canopy be used for the Smart Water Meter Program in Singapore. This deployment truly demonstrates the power and potential of a high-performance, multi-application industrial IoT network,” said John Marcolini, senior vice president of Networked Solutions at Itron.

“As part of this project, we look forward to helping PUB meet its water conservation goals and furthering Itron’s vision to create a more resourceful world.”

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Water is probably the most important and overly used global natural resource. According to a report from the World Resource Institute, about one-quarter of the world’s population, spread across 17 countries, faces extremely high level of water stress and by 2040, it is most likely that 1 in 4 children will be living in areas of extremely high water stress. Water conservation has become one of the direst needs today and the biggest challenge for utilities in the water sector.

Transforma Insights predicts 700 million smart water meters by 2030

Last week Transforma Insights published two reports which examine the ways in which IoT will be used to tackle the challenges of conserving water. The first, ‘Water Smart Meters: 700 million connections by 2030 to solve issues related to water scarcity and loss’ provides a summary of our view on the IoT market for smart water meters. It examines the reasons for the increase in installations along with detailed assessment of the progress of rollouts and the various communication technologies used across major geographies for these meters.

There are multiple ways to overcome challenges related to water losses and conservation, one way of conserving water is through detection of water leak or loss which is commercially defined as ‘Non-Revenue Water’ (NRW). Smart water meters play a key role in water conservation through early and accurate leak detection. These meters are equipped with sensors for leakage detection based on the water flow rate at any given point of time. This in turn helps the local utility track the water consumption per user and detect any losses or changes in the level of consumption. Detecting unexpected drops in pressure within the water grid, allows for identification of leaks before the metering point.

In total there will be 700 million smart water meter connections at the end of 2030, up from 196 million at the end of 2021. Greater China will be the region with the greatest number of devices throughout the forecast, with 31 percent share of total connected devices in 2030. North America will have a 29 percent share by 2030 followed by Europe with a share of 28 percent in 2030.

The arrival of new connectivity technologies will help to accelerate rollouts, as illustrated by the fact that the dominant connectivity technologies will be 5G mMTC (66%), which incorporates NB-IoT and LTE-M, and LPWA non-mMTC (28%) followed by 4G Cellular (6%). By 2030, there will be a significant change in the market from the current scenario that mostly uses RF Mesh as the most common primary communication technology.

Encouraging behavioural change

The other prominent way in which smart meters encourage water conservation is through managing behavioural changes related to water conservation. It is becoming increasingly common to see fines or penalties for wasting water on both consumers and utilities. For instance, California has introduced fines of USD500 per day on its citizens for wasting water. In Italy certain regions have introduced water-rationing measures, ranging from fountains being switched off and nightly restrictions on tap water, ban on using water for gardens and allotments, filling swimming pools and for washing cars.

Smart water meters provide feedback both to the utility provider and the user based on the amount of water consumed. Deploying these meters helps water utilities track water usage and to create and utilise a tariff structure that incorporates an allocation or entitlement to a set amount of water for a fixed service charge, disincentivising excessive water usage. However, it must be noted that the use of variable consumption charges per user creates a monetary benefit for the water utility from increased usage.

The smart grid also plays a major role in water conservation

The second report published by Transforma Insights was ‘Grid Operations: 91 million connected devices by 2030 across electricity, gas and water’ which examines the up-stream monitoring of distribution networks for electricity, gas and water.

One of the most important physical infrastructure connecting the smart water meter and the end water resources (such as lakes, ponds, streams and others) is the smart grid. The smart water grid is significantly useful in maintaining a continuous supply of water even in times of catastrophe such as drought and floods. These grids are equipped with sensors that capture information related to water volume, pressure, temperature, chemicals, leak detection, and supply levels. Additionally, these grids are equipped with automated valve operations that can then respond by shutting valves in the affected areas to prevent flooding, further damage, water loss, or spreading of contaminated water.

Data management software within the grid can then be used to analyse the water flow pattern, enabling predictive modelling and decision making based on better assessment of energy use, water supply, pricing, capex, and labour.

The wider sustainability impact

As well as the two reports highlighted above, Transforma Insights recently published its report ‘Sustainability Enabled by Digital Transformation’ looking at the impact of using IoT and other disruptive technologies on enterprises meeting their sustainability goals. For more on this topic, check out our recent blog post ‘IoT solutions in agriculture, utilities and smart buildings will be key to relieving pressure on increasingly scarce water resources’.

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The smart electricity metering market in Asia-Pacific is well on its way to reach the historic milestone of 1 billion installed devices.

A new research report from the IoT analyst firm Berg Insight analyses the development of smart metering technology in China, Japan, South Korea, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand. According to the study, the installed base of smart electricity meters in Asia-Pacific will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.2 percent from 757.7 million units in 2021 to 1.1 billion units in 2027. At this pace, the milestone of 1 billion installed devices will be reached in 2026. The penetration rate of smart electricity meters in Asia-Pacific will at the same time grow from 59 percent in 2021 to 74 percent in 2027 while cumulative shipments during the forecast period will amount to a total of 934.6 million units.

East Asia, including China, Japan and South Korea, has led the adoption of smart metering technology in Asia-Pacific with ambitious nationwide rollouts and today constitute the most mature smart metering market in the region, accounting for more than 95 percent of the installed base in Asia-Pacific at the end of 2021. China has already completed its rollout while Japan and South Korea are also expected to do so in the next few years. In China and Japan, replacements of first-generation smart meters have in fact already begun and are expected to ramp up significantly in the coming few years.

Levi Ostling, Senior Analyst at Berg Insight, said:

“Replacements of aging first-generation smart meters will be the most important driver for smart meter shipments in Asia-Pacific in the coming years and will account for as much as 60 percent of the cumulative shipment volume during 2021–2027.”

While East Asia constitutes the most mature smart metering market in Asia-Pacific, the fastest growing markets are on the other hand all found in South and Southeast Asia with a wave of smart metering projects now sweeping across the region. The most significant growth is expected in India where a massive new governmental funding scheme has recently been introduced with the goal of achieving the installation of 250 million smart prepayment meters by 2026. In neighbouring Bangladesh, large-scale smart electricity metering installations are now also emerging in a similar push to install smart prepayment metering by the government.

“We’re also seeing positive developments in nascent smart metering markets such as Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, which combined constitute a potential market opportunity of around 130 million metering points”, continued Mr. Ostling.

Along with India, these three markets will be the fastest growing smart metering markets in Asia-Pacific during 2021–2027 with annual shipment volumes forecasted to grow at a CAGR in the range of 65–80 percent.

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Custom created for the Australian market, EDMI’s ultrasonic DN20 meters are compliant with LwM2M and NB-IoT standards.

EDMI, a global leader in the provision of smart metering solutions, has partnered with IoTerop, a leading IoT device management software company, to offer Lightweight Machine to Machine (LwM2M) and Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) capabilities in its newly released DN20 ultrasonic water meters.

The DN20 meter will provide near real-time data so that consumers can track their water consumption and make informed decisions about their water usage. Dual D batteries in the meters enable 20+ years of battery life, and extensive in-house ALT (accelerated life testing) was done to ensure a long life on the field.

Having served the Australian market since 1978, EDMI has deployed more than 5 million electricity and gas meters in Australia alone. EDMI recently recognized the need for a highly-customized water metering device that was built on open standards and delivered at a price point that maximizes the business benefits of deploying smart water meters. The DN20 also features a STM32 chipset, allowing for a very high performance, real-time capabilities, digital signal processing, and low‑power and low‑voltage operation. It also comes with an exclusive one-touch commissioning, allowing for rapid field deployments.

“EDMI is proud to offer our clients cutting-edge DN20 NB-IoT ultrasonic smart water meters,” said David Roe, Product Lead for Smart Water at EDMI Australasia. “Thanks to IoTerop’s IOWA, our meters are LwM2M and NB-IoT compliant. Our use of IOWA allowed for a much shorter time to market, and IOWA’s thorough documentation, simple API, and excellent support were key components of the DN20’s successful launch,” he said.

“Due to the size and environmental factors, the Australian landscape offers unique challenges and opportunities when it comes to water metering,” said Hatem Oueslati, CEO of IoTerop.

“We are passionate about offering organizations the ability to quickly create interoperable products that can communicate on open networks in order to advance smart metering efforts around the world. Our technologies not only allow for rapid deployment, but contribute significantly to keeping products on the field longer thanks to extended battery life, firmware updates over the air (FOTA), and top-notch security.”

EDMI plans to deploy 150,000 smart meters across Australia and New Zealand over the next 12 months as part of a much larger roll-out that will deliver more control to networks and more choice to consumers.

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Today we’re announcing a new $100 million deal with Intellihub that will see Telstra provide up to 4.1 million IoT SIMs to Intellihub over the next decade.

It’s our largest ever IoT deal in terms of value and the number of connected devices and will connect Intellihub and its customers to Telstra’s IoT network – Australia’s largest.

Using the Cisco Jasper platform, the IoT SIMs will be incorporated into Intellihub’s smart meters to deliver real-time monitoring and insights to help Intellihub and its customers better manage things like energy demand, solar feed-ins and peaks and troughs.

This solution demonstrates the power of Telstra IoT in finding real-world solutions and will enable Intellihub’s smart meters to get even smarter, providing Intellihub and its customers with deeper, real-time insights to manage the different elements of the energy network.

Intellihub was founded four years ago and has grown significantly with more than 1 million meters installed and around 1000 new meters going in every day. Telstra’s IoT SIM will be soldered into each device at the point of manufacture.

The deal also provides Intellihub with price certainty for the next 10 years – key for its next phase of growth.

We’ve already hit the ground running with around half a million Intellihub smart meters connected to the Telstra IoT network so far.

Australia’s largest IoT network

The deal comes at an exciting time for Telstra, with more than five million devices now connected to Telstra’s IoT network. The importance of IoT continues to grow with more than 50,000 devices being connected to our IoT network every month and, as of today, around 1.2 million devices are connected to a Telstra LPWAN.

Leveraging our mobile network infrastructure, our Cellular Low Power Wide Area Networks (Cellular LPWANs) are built specifically for scaled IoT deployments to provide better, cost-efficient coverage.

Telstra has the largest IoT network in Australia – around four million square kilometres of NB-IoT coverage and around three million square kilometres of LTE-M coverage. These networks are built specifically for scaled IoT deployments and provide better, cost efficient coverage even in challenging locations that high bandwidth technologies may not reach, including underground where digital meters are often located.

IoT connects everything from vehicles to machines, infrastructure, smart meters, buildings, connected vehicles, solar panels, humidity sensors, traffic cones, buses, whitegoods and garbage trucks, delivering insights and tools that previously weren’t possible.

Connected technologies, such as Telstra’s IoT deal with Intellihub, are helping organisations use connected technology to drive positive customer experiences and help remotely monitor their network, equipment and assets.

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Sarawak Energy to Deploy 180,000 Advanced Metering Infrastructure Endpoints, Take Advantage of Network-as-a-Service.

Itron, Inc., which is innovating the way utilities and cities manage energy and water, announced that Syarikat SESCO Berhad (SESCO), a subsidiary of Sarawak Energy^*, Malaysia, signed a contract to deploy Itron’s industrial IoT (IIoT) solution.

The solution, which will help Sarawak Energy improve operational efficiency and consumer engagement, includes Itron’s communications network for 180,000 Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) endpoints as well as Operations Optimizer and UtilityIQ (UIQ) Software-as-a-Service. As part of the 15-year contract, Sarawak Energy will leverage Itron’s Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) to deploy, monitor and maintain the communications network.

In 2018, Sarawak Energy collaborated with Itron on a project to deploy and operate Itron’s IIoT network, including a pilot for 6,000 AMI endpoints. With the successful implementation of the pilot, Sarawak Energy has now progressed to the next phase and awarded Itron with an expanded deployment of 180,000 AMI endpoints.

As a NaaS contract, Itron will manage the network and the UIQ headend software suite on Sarawak Energy’s behalf to collect and manage consumption data. Sarawak Energy will also utilize Itron’s Operations Optimizer analytics solution to improve operational efficiency and develop business processes and workflows by leveraging insights from a variety of internal and external data sources.

Don Reeves, senior vice president of Outcomes at Itron, said:

“With our open, standards-based network, Sarawak Energy will be able to easily and efficiently improve customer service, safety and operational efficiency. With such a high success rate from our pilot deployment in 2018, we are thrilled to continue the expansion of this project with our long-term customer, Sarawak Energy.”

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Sequans Communications S.A. announced that Ubiik, a leading global Industrial IoT solutions provider with a proven track record in large scale deployments, is using its Monarch 2 GM02S LTE-M/NB-IoT module as a new connectivity solution in Ubiik’s rapidly expanding AMI (advanced metering infrastructure) network.

Ubiik has built a dedicated network for electricity AMI in Taiwan where it is the leading AMI provider to Taiwan Power Company (Taipower). Ubiik’s AMI solution with Weightless LPWAN connectivity that delivers more than 120-million-meter readings daily in Taiwan, has proven to be cost-effective and scalable for the digitalization of electricity meter reading and billing in Taiwan and other countries around the world. WeightlessTM LPWAN is ideally complemented by LTE-M/NB-IoT and allows Ubiik to serve a wider range of AMI deployment scenarios.

“We selected Sequans Monarch 2 GM02S module as the basis for our next generation of LTE communication modules for smart electricity meters because its advanced security features and integrated SIM help us advance our leadership in the industry,” said Tien-haw Peng, Founder and CEO of Ubiik. “As a vertical AMI solution provider offering our industry leading network, head end system, and O&M platform, we are dedicated to remaining at the forefront of AMI in Taiwan and worldwide, and Sequans, with its best-in-class Monarch 2 technology and excellent customer support, is helping us do that.”

Ubiik is using Sequans Monarch 2 technology to build FAN (field area network) modules for DLMS/COSEM electricity meters that will be used to complement the company’s current AMI offering. The new Monarch 2-powered modules also leverage Monarch 2’s ultra-low power consumption capability, which enables Ubiik to expand its service offering beyond electricity to other utility segments that use battery-powered meters.

Georges Karam, Sequans CEO, said:

“Ubiik has already built one of the largest LPWAN networks for electricity AMI in the world and we are pleased to be able to support them in their next phase of development with our Monarch 2 technology.”

“Ubiik has been highly successful in their quest to be the leading AMI vendor, and we are excited to see our technology connecting their next generation of smart meters.”

Ubiik is using Sequans’ second-generation LTE-M/NB-IoT module, Monarch 2 GM02S, that delivers ultra-low power consumption and a very high level of security. Monarch 2 GM02S is the world’s only cellular IoT module supporting an EAL5+ secure enclave for integrated SIM (ieUICC) capability that is compliant with GSMA standards. The module also supports a single rail power supply starting at 2.2 V, the lowest level in the industry, allowing for better efficiency of the internal power management unit, further reducing power consumption, and lowering battery and BOM cost. For full product details, visit Sequans’ Monarch 2 GM02S web page.

Ubiik has already deployed hundreds of thousands of smart electricity meters in Taiwan and Japan, and its vertical AMI solution is now expanding to markets in the US, India, Middle East, and the ASEAN countries.

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New solution running on the LoRaWAN® standard detects dangerous levels of methane in gas, shuts off the valve and notifies the end user via a Nortegas mobile app.

Semtech Corporation announced its collaboration with Spanish utility metering systems provider Arson Metering.

Arson Metering is utilizing Semtech’s LoRa® devices and the LoRaWAN® standard for its new smart gas metering sensor solution. Through implementing LoRaWAN connectivity, sensors can detect dangerous levels of methane in gas, wirelessly send a notification to a mobile device and then immediately shut off gas supply. The sensor solution is universal in which it can read all types of water and gas meters from all manufacturers. According to Arson Metering, the sensor can be integrated to work with all types of metering technologies including current and future.

“We have demonstrated that LoRaWAN is the ideal Internet of Things (IoT) solution in Spain,” said Amador Martínez, CEO of Arson Metering.

“With LoRaWAN, our sensors can provide accurate and immediate gas usage information, keeping customers safe while also helping them reduce utility usage. Currently, Arson Metering has deployed enough LoRaWAN gateways, powered by solar panels and long-life batteries, to ensure network availability full time. In addition, the flexibility of the LoRaWAN network is allowing for secure transport of all the different protocols required by a variety of gas meters.”

In conjunction with Arson Metering’s expertise, Spanish gas provider Nortegas has validated the use of LoRaWAN to provide reliable connectivity to end customers. Through the integration of LoRaWAN, customers are able to be notified via a mobile app provided by Nortegas in case of a situation involving excessive methane concentration. As a result of the collaboration, Nortegas is now able to deploy sensors in homes and businesses to automate the gas meter readings on a daily basis as well as offer secure gas installation with methane and carbon monoxide (CO) gas sensors.

“Arson Metering’s successful implementation of Semtech’s LoRa devices and the LoRaWAN standard for its smart metering solution with gas safety sensors demonstrates how Semtech’s IoT solutions are reliable to protect lives, provide accurate data and are easy to deploy,” said Marc Pégulu, vice president of IoT product marketing and strategy for Semtech’s Wireless and Sensing Products Group. “Improving smart utility metering showcases Semtech’s ongoing commitment to create a smarter and greener world through IoT technology.”

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