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Three new smart grid spending forecasts zoom in on key topics in the smart grid space.

Smart meters will double in emerging markets next year

A study from Northeast Group anticipates smart meter deployments across 35 emerging market countries next year will be more than double the number of deployments in 2012. And with growth continuing, those countries will represent a smart metering – or advanced metering infrastructure – market of $56 billion by 2022. The study -- Emerging Markets Smart Grid: Outlook 2013 -- also reveals that:

·         The total number of electricity meters in these countries will grow to 546 million by 2022, with 27% already targeted by regulators to be "smart."

·         14 of the 35 countries are well positioned to begin large-scale smart grid deployments within the next 1–3 years or are already in the early stages of major rollouts. These include Brazil, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Mexico, Poland, Qatar, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, and the United Arab Emirates.

The study does not include the mega-markets of China and India; the 35 countries are from Central/Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Latin America, Middle East/North Africa, South Africa and Southeast Asia. Read more >>

On a related note, IDC Energy Insights notes that worldwide smart meter shipments surpassed 15.4 million units in the third quarter of 2012, representing year-over-year growth of 126.9% and a 58.6% increase over the second quarter. But the Asia/Pacific region grew at what IDC calls "an astonishing rate" of 516.8% year over year and 142.02% sequentially. Much of that was in China. Read more >>

Cybersecurity for smart grid ICS growth 'in a state of flux'

The forecast isn't as promising for cybersecurity spending, according to Pike Research, which says security is still viewed as "a cost-limitation exercise" by many utilities, and advances toward meaningful regulations remain halting. At the same, its new report - “Industrial Control Systems Security” - suggests that technological innovation in the market is stagnant.

As a result, Pike predicts the market for smart grid ICS cybersecurity will reach $369 million in 2012 and grow to $608 million by 2020.

"The shallow growth curve for ICS cybersecurity through the remainder of the decade reflects utilities’ historically measured approach to technology upgrades—the focus on reliability trumps any abrupt shift to the next great thing,” says senior research analyst Bob Lockhart. “Despite the improved awareness of potential threats and risks, many utilities remain reluctant to allocate security funding beyond that needed for compliance minimums. That will change as the technology improves, prices go down, and the cost of complacency becomes more apparent.” Read more >>