A new research report from analyst firm Berg Insight calculates that the number of smart electricity meters installed in Europe will reach 111.4 million at the end of 2015. That's a compound annual growth rate of 17.9% from 2009.
The report identifies France, Spain and the UK as the next countries in Europe where smart metering will become introduced.
Tobias Ryberg, Senior Analyst at Berg Insight, said "In the past year, EDF, Endesa and Iberdrola – three of the absolutely largest electricity network operators in Europe – have launched large-scale pilots in France and Spain, respectively. Next year, these deployments will evolve into nationwide rollouts in these countries. On top of that, the UK’s largest electricity and gas retailer British Gas has launched the first major smart metering project for residential customers in the country. These developments in combination with rollouts in several other European countries will drive strong market growth over the next five years."
Smart meters provide consumers with detailed information about – and more control of - their power consumption. We'll be taking a closer look at smart metering in this week's edition of The Fonecast. The programme will be available to download on Wednesday, with a special full-length smart metering feature broadcast on Friday. You can listen to the programme on the home page of our website, you can download it from our RSS podcast feed and you can find it on iTunes.