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By Doug Peeples

SGN News Editor

 

The smart grid initiative has gradually become a global phenomenon and, according to the latest reports we've seen, there is every indication that it's growing in size and scope despite the hefty bumps in the road most of us are familiar with. And while the demands and strategies vary from region to region, it looks like we all experience many of the same challenges and successes.

 

Getting a handle on cybersecurity

Ernst & Young's Global Information Security Survey 2012 says utilities and other organizations will need to drop their incremental approach of finding short-term solutions and get busy on overall information security threat issues if we're ever going to be able to answer "yes" to that question. Responses from more than 1,850 CIOs, CISOs and other information security execs in 64 countries showed that 77% acknowledged growing threats from external attacks while 46% said internal threats also were growing. Unfortunately, 63% said they have no security architecture in place and a handful (16%) said their information security was adequate. The report also addresses budget and finance issues.

 

Who could be calling the shots for Europe's smart metering industry? Germany

That may sound like a strange call to make since Germany is the only major country in Europe that has not pushed smart metering, with regulators instead relying on market-driven adoption which has shown meager results. Berg says the European smart metering market will show "strong performance" over the next five years with penetration tripling – and that it will be led by France, Spain, the UK and some others. But it also said Germany is considering a regulation-driven national deployment and probably will announce the results of its smart metering business case assessment next year.

 

Tobias Ryberg, Berg senior analyst, said it's an either or proposition. "If Germany draws the same conclusions about smart metering as most other countries in Western Europe, it will open up a large and diverse market that offers plenty of room for both new and existing players to define the next generation of cutting edge smart grid technology. In the opposite case, the market opportunities for smart marketing solutions in Western Europe will essentially dry up after 2020 and most European industry players will be unable to find new customers and lose a decade's experience before the introduction of third generation smart metering systems begin in 2030."

 

Europe's advanced water metering market also is taking off, said IMS Research in a report which also covers the Middle East and Africa. Double digit growth is expected every year through 2014. Advanced water meter sales are anticipated to represent almost a third of all water meter sales revenue in the EMEA although they won't be uniform throughout the area.

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