Date: 23/12/2011

IHS iSuppli:Smart Meter shipments to triple from 20.5M in 2011 to 62M in 2016

IHS iSuppli has reported worldwide smart meter shipments are set to rise to 62 million units in 2016, up from 20.5 million in 201. IHS iSuppli also estimates global sales of semiconductors used in these smart meters are set to rise to $1.1 billion in 2016, up from $505.6 million in 2011.

The key findings include:
The rollout of smart meters is being propelled by government support and regulations. For example, in the United States, stimulus money from the Smart Grid Investment Grant (SGIG) program is spurring the replacement of conventional meters with new smart models. Meanwhile, the Euro- pean Union is targeting an 80 percent conversion to smart meters by 2020, representing shipments of 180 million units.

Combining smart meters with smart home features could represent a great opportunity for telecommunications companies. Sales of devices supporting these features will drive additional sales of semiconductors.

The semiconductors that contribute most to the cost of smart meters are logic integrated circuits (ICs), mainly metrology ICs and communications ICs. The next biggest contributors are micro- components, such as microcontrollers, digital signal processors and microprocessors.

Smart meters are making greater use of system on chip (SOC) devices, which will integrate most of the functionality of the product into a single device.

While the market for smart meter semiconductors will rise in the coming years, revenue growth will flatten starting in 2015. The rising usage of SOCs will accelerating price erosion and cause overall revenue to level out starting in 2015, although smart meter shipments will keep increasing.