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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (190475)	4/29/2010 10:35:42 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Respond to of 361952

GE to Tap Demand for Smart Meters in $200 Billion Global Market By Dinakar Sethuraman April 29 (Bloomberg) -- General Electric Co. is poised to tap the $200 billion smart-meter market as nations upgrade more power meters to improve electricity use and lower costs. More than a billion electricity measuring units may be changed to “smart meters” in the next two decades, said Luke Clemente, general manager for GE Energy’s digital energy business. A smart meter system may cost $100 to $200 a unit, depending on the technology used, and the business may be worth as much as $200 billion excluding add-on systems and devices, based on calculations from GE data. “Smart meter is a beachhead for smart grid development,” Clemente, who oversees smart meter business globally for GE, the world’s biggest maker of power-generation equipment, said by phone from Singapore yesterday. “They help delay adding incremental (power) capacity and reduce electricity losses.” Electricity networks equipped with so-called intelligent meters may improve efficiency and squeeze more out of ageing grid networks in developed nations while helping cut losses from thefts and inefficiencies in Asia. Smart meters transmit consumption patterns to the utility and benefit consumers by allowing them to tap cheaper power during off-peak periods. GE may spend $1.5 billion on research and development in its so-called clean products businesses this year, doubling its investment since 2005. Meter Upgrades GE, whose first-quarter profit fell 18 percent and revenue trailed analysts’ estimates, is deploying smart grid networks on a commercial scale in U.S. and Australia, conducting trial runs in China and South Korea, and tying up in a meter-making venture with Fuji Electric Holdings Co., Clemente said. The company is targeting U.K., Portugal, Spain, Germany and France as the European Union plans to replace 80 percent of their meters by 2020, the Atlanta-based GE official said. Smart grid installations may grow at “double digits” every year, he said, without giving details. The U.S., which announced an $8 billion upgrade to the nation’s grid in October, plans to replace about 40 million of its 120 million meters with smart ones over three years. The U.S. may be able to increase power capacity by about 13 percent without adding plants by adopting “smart grids,” Saifur Rahman, a professor at Virginia Tech College of Engineering, said in August. Test Markets China, where GE built a smart grid demonstration center in Yangzhou, plans to replace 400 million meters in five years, Clemente said. South Korea, Asia’s fourth-largest energy user, said in January that it may spend about 27.5 trillion won ($24.5 billion) by 2030 building so-called smart power grids. Utilities typically operate at about 50 percent capacity, which may be boosted by a smart grid network, Clemente said. “Electricity losses can be reduced by upwards of 10 percent,” he said, citing countries such as India where smart networks can help utilities lower losses. The cost of installing smart meters may be a deterrent to some individual consumers as the savings accrue over a longer duration while lack of broadband access and costs may slow development in countries such as India, academic Rahman said. GE, Cisco Systems Inc. and FPL Group Inc.’s Florida Power & Light Co. are creating a “smart” metering system in Miami, costing $200 million, with possible help from the U.S. federal stimulus funding, they said last April. To contact the reporter on this story: Dinakar Sethuraman in Bangalore bloomberg.com