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About the Industry
Utilimetrics began operations as AMRA, the Automated Meter Reading Association, an organization dedicated to meeting the professional needs of utilities, vendors, and corporations as they deployed automated technologies. As both technology and the industry evolved – so too has Utilimetrics, which now serves to meet the needs of utility decision makers, vendors, corporations and consumers as they adopt and deploy advanced technologies within an amazing dynamic and fluid field. So what is the state of the industry and what changes are anticipated?
State of the Industry
The utility technology industry over the past ten years has been marked by both rapid change and rapid growth. Howard Scott, Ph.D. and author of, "The Scott Report" tells us that:
Over the past decade through August 2008, the deployment of automated metering technologies increased annually at compound rates of 15% to 20%. Starting in 2006, it became clear that growth rates would accelerate further as electric utilities started to move aggressively to advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and more recently to Smart Metering. Meanwhile, gas and water utilities increased their deployments of automatic meter reading (AMR). With international deployments of automated metering technologies rapidly growing, the outlook had clearly been positive, until the economic crisis of 2008 hit.
Source: Reprinted with permission from Scott, H. (2008). The Scott report: Worldwide deployments of automated metering devices, 12th Ed.p.2. Pequannock, NJ: Cognyst Advisors. |
Unlike other industries, however, the utility technology field is not as likely to experience the same type of economic downturn or growth decline as other industries. Deployments were already in progress and significant political change outside the industry has had enormous impact on utility technologies.
Industry Changes
Optimism may still be appropriate because a more significant development is about to affect the industry. The Obama administration has stated that it will be encouraging rapid expansion of infrastructure projects across the U.S. which may include the deployment of smart metering throughout the U.S.’s electric utilities. Note – their goal is not to have AMR, but to have Smart Metering. This initiative may have several ripple effects. . . the presence of smart metering by electric utilities may drive the use of smart metering by gas and water utilities. This may be further encouraged by the Obama administration’s efforts to upgrade water and gas infrastructure across the U.S. We can also expect that electric, gas and water utilities may be deploying meters throughout their transmission and distribution plants so usage, losses and other problems can be quickly isolated. All of these various metering capabilities may be linked together for safety and security reasons. In addition, we may even see electric, water and gas computer systems linked together with other service systems (such as sewer or cable TV) to identify the locations of problems such as floods, automobile crashes, and more. Furthermore the information available from all of these systems may be used for other purposes, such as planning for infrastructure growth, theft identification, and predictive outage planning.
Because the economic downturn is a worldwide problem, these developments may not be limited to the United States. Many other countries may follow the lead of the U.S. and start their own Smart Metering projects. For example, Canada is already a leader in Smart Metering deployment, China is reported to be working on a multi-billion dollar AMR project, and large smart metering projects are already underway in parts of Europe.
Source: Reprinted with permission from Scott, H. (2008). The Scott report: Worldwide deployments of automated metering devices, 12th Ed.p.2. Pequannock, NJ: Cognyst Advisors. For more information go to "The Scott Report". |
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