Smart meters penetration surpasses 80% in North America

The number of smart meters in North America reached almost 146 million at the end of 2023 and with ongoing growth is expected to number 182.9 million in 2029.

In a new study, Berg Insight reports that at the end of 2023, the overall penetration in North America surpassed 80% with 130.6 million smart electricity meters in the US and 15.4 million in Canada.

With a compound annual growth rate projected at 3.8% over the period to 2029, the penetration of smart meters in the US should increase to 94% and in Canada to 96% in that year.

Berg Insight states that in the next two years, first-generation projects by utilities such as AEP, PSEG, Xcel Energy, First Energy, PPL, Dominion Energy, National Grid, Ameren, Avangrid, Exelon and AES will contribute to annual first-generation smart electricity meter shipments ranging from 5 to 7 million units.

However, the first-generation smart meter shipments will account for an increasingly smaller share of the annual shipment volumes as the second-generation deployments is forecast to account for more than 80% of the yearly shipments by 2029.

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

Alongside the increase in replacement smart meter projects, the development of smart metering technology in the North American market has recently shifted focus to new demands beyond smart metering, Berg Insight points out.

Utilities are now looking to leverage their existing network canopies for a wider array of smart city applications. They are also addressing how to integrate the rapidly increasing number of electric vehicles and distributed energy resources into the grid infrastructure.

Mattias Carlsson, IoT Analyst at Berg Insight, says the leading vendors are now in a race to develop and successfully market the most compelling use cases for second-generation smart metering technology.

“In addition to enhanced computing power, edge analytics and more frequent meter reads that offer a new range of benefits and control, utilities are increasingly seeking to combine various applications into a unified solution.”

The report states that the North American market is dominated by Itron and Landis+Gyr with 34% and 32% market shares respectively. This is followed by Aclara with 22% and the remaining 13% shared predominately between Honeywell and Sensus.

In terms of network endpoints, the largest player is Itron with a market share of 63%, followed by Landis+Gyr with 25% and Sensus with 8%.

The report also highlights wireless RF as the preferred technology, accounting for the vast majority of installations, both in the electricity and gas sectors.

The leading players provide proprietary RF mesh or star topology platforms for the unlicensed 915MHz ISM band, in addition to licensed sub-GHz spectrums.

Wi-SUN-based mesh networks offered by vendors such as Landis+Gyr and Itron is currently the most widespread variant and also accounts for the majority of shipments.

In the North American region, PLC has generally been perceived as inferior in terms of performance and cost, while cellular communications have historically enjoyed limited adoption in the region.

However, a few significant cellular deployments totalling less than 5 million meters have been made throughout the past decade.