Research and Markets: New Research Predicts at Least 5 Million Electricity Meters Will Be Connected to GPRS Networks in the Nordic Region by 2010.

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c21357) has announced the addition of Wireless M2M Communication and AMR - 2nd Edition to their offering.

At least 5 million electricity meters will be connected to GPRS networks in the Nordic region by 2010, according to a new report. Regulatory requirements and increasing competition in the energy industry is creating a mass market for automated meter reading solutions in Sweden, Denmark and Finland, worth several billion euros. Leading energy companies in the region are teaming up with IT and telecom companies to ensure that electricity customers get accurate energy bills based on actual power consumption.

Tobias Ryberg, principal analyst, estimates that the number of remotely read electricity meters in the Nordic region will grow from less than 1 million in 2005 to over 8 million in 2010. He also believes that a majority of the upgraded meters will be connected to mobile networks. "During 2004 there was an evident shift in favour of mobile data solutions. Our current forecasts indicate a market share of 60 percent for GPRS in the Nordic market in the coming years." Power line communication and unlicensed radio frequencies are the main competing technologies.

Tobias says mobile operators already participate in several major projects. TeliaSonera has begun connecting 350,000 meters to its GSM-network in Finland as part of a contract signed with Vattenfall in October 2004. Denmark's leading power utility NESA cooperates with Telenor's subsidiary Sonofon around the deployment of 530,000 meters with GPRS connectivity until 2010. Vodafone is partnering with the leading electricity meter vendor Actaris to bring GPRS based metering solutions to the Swedish market.

Metering is a fundamental business enabler for companies in the utility sector. Regardless whether a utility distributes energy in the form of electric power or gas, or water, there is an inevitable need to measure the consumption for each customer. That is the purpose of energy and water meters. Meters continuously register a customer's consumption of electricity, gas or water. At regular intervals, the meter is read by the utility providing the service. Readings are then used as basis for energy and water bills. Traditionally meter reading has been done manually at intervals of up to one year or more. Recently many utilities have to some extent delegated this task to their customers by enabling self reading by phone or Internet. Still readings must however regularly be checked by the utility to prevent fraud. Information technology and data communication networks however eliminate the need for manual readings and enable utilities to design systems that monitor meters constantly. The concept has been developed for several decades and is known as automated meter reading, or AMR.

The metering industry value chain comprise a variety of players, ranging from manufacturing companies that produce electricity meters to IT and communication solution companies that integrate metering equipment with utility customer management systems. The European electricity meter market is dominated by four major meter suppliers - Landis+Gyr, Actaris, Elster and Iskraemeco - which have a combined market share of over 60 percent. Power distribution companies are the principal end users of metering solutions. Leading players in the European market include the international energy groups EDF, Enel, E.ON, Endesa and RWE.

Topics covered in the report include:

1 Overview of the European power distribution market
2 AMR systems and communication technologies
3 Market opportunity for mobile industry players
4 Case study: The Nordic AMR market
5 Company profiles
- Actaris
- Elster
- Enermet
- Itron
- Kamstrup
- Landis+Gyr
- Iskraemeco
- Uni-meter
- ADD Grup
- Comsel System
- DCSI
- Echelon
- Hunt Technologies
- Metrima
- Policom
- Senea
- Technolog
- Xemex
- CE Electric UK
- DONG
- E.ON
- EDF
- EDP
- Electrabel
- EnBW
- Endesa
- Eneco
- Enel
- ESB
- Essent
- Fortum
- Nuon
- PPC
- RWE
- Scottish and Southern Energy
- ScottishPower
- Statkraft
- Union Fenosa
- United Utilities
- Vattenfall
- Western Power Distribution
- Wien Energie

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c21357