A recent white paper from Navigant Research examines the major trends and market forces that are expected to shape the future of the smart grid market, including summary forecasts for five smart grid application areas.
With breakthroughs and innovation emerging on an almost daily basis, the smart grid technology industry is burgeoning. For the electric utilities expected to deliver reliable and efficient grid systems, however, the pace is considerably slower. Electric utilities worldwide are facing upheaval on a number of fronts, influencing industrywide trends. According to a recent white paper from Navigant Research, a combination of factors that includes deregulation, the proliferation of distributed generation (DG) installations, and environmental concerns are expected to mold the smart grid industry in 2015 and beyond.
“Deregulation is occurring globally, even as distributed generation (DG) cuts into the utility’s core business of selling electricity to businesses and consumers,” says Richelle Elberg, senior research analyst with Navigant Research. “Further, the increase in DG installations, along with electric vehicles (EVs), is changing the load profile of distribution circuits, often in concentrated neighborhoods, which can mean reduced grid stability and increased need for infrastructure upgrades.”
One way utilities are adapting to this changing landscape is by maximising investment in advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) networks for a host of new applications, from consumer engagement to analytics, and from demand response (DR) to time-of-use (TOU) pricing. As utilities leverage this last mile of connectivity, and intelligence morphs and spreads across the grid, the need for increasingly complex and interoperable IT systems, more robust communications networks, and greater collaboration between formerly siloed teams, also grows.
The selection of the white paper’s 10 trends was based on industry research conducted by Navigant Research analysts throughout 2014. They include:
- Prosumers prod the traditional model
- Smart metering 2.0: Maximising the bang for the advanced metering infrastructure buck
- Smart edge: More utility solutions leverage distributed intelligence and automation
- “Your power is out; we are working on it”: Utilities embrace social media and mobile devices for customer engagement
- Smart grid as a service: Moving from hype cycle to real world product
- The push and pull of DR: Default dynamic pricing and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Order 745
- Just the FACTS, ma’am: Flexible alternating current transmission system deployments rise in step with power plant decommissioning
- High-voltage transmission getting in synch
- Holistic health for utilities: Regulators tweaking the utility recipe, but are there too many cooks in the kitchen?
- A more worldly smart grid industry: Europe and Asia Pacific especially poised for growth over the next several years
The white paper, “Smart Grid: 10 Trends to Watch in 2015 and Beyond,” provides insights into key issues that are expected to shape the smart grid market in the months and years ahead, with summary forecasts for five smart grid application areas. Each of the topics in this white paper is examined more deeply in Navigant Research market overview reports, which are identified for each trend. The full white paper is available for free download on the Navigant Research website.
