Smart metering inching closer to 1 billion units in Asia-Pacific

Smart electricity metering in Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at a rate of over 6% from 818.6 million units in 2023 to nearly 1.2 billion units in 2029, Berg Insight has reported.

At this pace, the milestone of 1 billion installed devices will be reached in mid-2026.

With this, the penetration rate of smart electricity meters in the region will grow from 61% in 2023 to 80% in 2029 while cumulative shipments during 2024–2029 will amount to a total of 872.7 million units.

At the same time, the number of smart gas meters is expected to more than double from 196 million units in 2023 to 420 million units in 2029.

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Mattias Carlsson, IoT Analyst at Berg Insight, says that replacements of ageing first-generation smart meters will be the most important driver for smart meter shipments in Asia-Pacific in the years to 2029.

He adds: “The number of smart meters tendered by the State Grid of China is also expected to become more stable going forward at around 65–70 million units per year.”

East Asia

China along with other East Asian countries Japan, South Korea and Taiwan have 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 90% of the installed base in the region at the end of 2023.

The rollout of smart electricity meters in China is now complete while Japan is in the end-phase of its rollout. In both countries replacements of first-generation smart meters have begun.

The nationwide rollout in South Korea has suffered a number of delays and the national utility KEPCO now aims to complete the rollout by the end of 2024.

Taiwan is the least mature market in East Asia with an installed base of just 2.8 million smart meters.

South and southeast Asia

Nevertheless, the fastest growing markets are all in south and southeast Asia with a wave of smart metering projects now sweeping across the region, according to Berg Insight.

In south Asia, the most significant growth is expected in India, which is targeting 250 million smart prepayment meters.

In neighbouring Bangladesh, large-scale smart electricity metering installations are also emerging in a similar push to install smart prepayment metering by the government.

In southeast Asia, the most nascent smart metering market, positive developments are being observed in the Philippines Thailand and Indonesia – particularly the latter two with the beginning of large-scale implementation plans.

Australasia is characterised by a market-driven and retailer-led approach to smart metering. More than half of all smart meters in Australia are now smart while New Zealand has reached a natural saturation of more than 90% with second-generation installations now about to take off.

Technologies

Berg Insight notes that the markets in Asia-Pacific are largely dominated by local or regional players and only a few companies such as Landis+Gyr, Itron, EDMI (Osaki Electric) and Trilliant have managed to establish a notable presence in multiple markets across the region.

In terms of smart meter communications, domestic PLC technologies dominate the electricity markets in China and South Korea while RF mesh is the main option in Japan.

Cellular communications have meanwhile emerged as the dominant technology in Australasia and in India, where RF mesh also has a significant market share.

The LPWA technologies NB-IoT, LTE-M, LoRa and Sigfox have at the same time emerged as the favoured options for smart gas metering projects across Asia-Pacific, although major regional differences exist.