South and Central America Smart Meters Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2021 - 2026)

Market Overview

The South and Central American Smart Meter Market witnessed a shipment of approximately 4.14 million units of smart meters in 2020 and is estimated to reach to 7.86 Million units by 2026, registering a CAGR of 8.59% for the forecast period (2021-2026). The recent COVID-19 outbreak and nationwide lockdown impacted the overall rollout of smart meters in South and Central America. The global COVID-19 pandemic resulted in lockdowns in various parts of the region, which halted several operations across the industries. As a result, the shipments and installations of smart meters also witnessed a downfall.

• The market is primarily driven by governmental roll-outs for large-scale incorporations, in the absence of which the primary drivers are theft prevention and reduction of other non-technical losses, along with functionality improvements, such as the ability to control utilities remotely and time-based tariffs. However, countries lacking supporting legislation are witnessing slow growth in the market, with the patchy implementation of the technology. This also inhibits these systems from performing at their optimal level.
• Mexico and Brazil lead the Latin American region when it comes to the adoption of smart meters. In Brazil, utilities, such as AES Eletropaulo, Eletrobras, Celpa, Light, and others, have experimented with smart meters from pilot-scale projects to multimillion-meter deployments. For instance, in Mexico, state-run utility CFE is in the process of converting 30.2 million customers to smart meters by 2025. New markets, such as Columbia, Peru, and Chile, are also expected to witness a demand for smart meters over the forecast period.
• The market for smart water meters, however, is in a nascent stage in the region, lacking any large-scale deployments. However, the water scarcity in some nations has led to the initiation of trial phases. According to the estimates by the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF), the water infrastructure demand in Latin America requires an investment of about 0.3% of the GDP until 2030.
• The region is characterized by enormous variations in the economic, social and political structures for private investments. This level of privatization is expected to invite foreign investments to adopt smart technology solutions in the water distribution sector in the region. For instance, in March 2020, Esval and Aguas del Valle chose TaKaDu to improve its water network management and protect the water resources of Chilean regions IV and V. The solution is expected to be implemented in 100% of the group's networks, corresponding to about 7,000 km. Currently, nearly 13,000 sensors have been deployed.
• This increase in population has caused an increase in the consumption of water. Currently, agriculture accounts for 77% of water consumption; domestic uses account for 13% and industry for 10%. With considerable economic activities and an increasing population, the Mexican residents of northwest, semi-arid, arid north, and central regions use an average of 75 gallons of water a day, which is more than that of a US resident.
• Further, to encourage renewable energy investment in Mexico, the administration addressed infrastructure bottlenecks. It realized that as power demand grows, the aging transmission lines need to be upgraded to reduce losses. Further, the transmission and distribution losses have been attributed to infrastructure, illegal access, poor metering, and incorrect billing, to name a few.
• In line with the country’s Uruguay Digital 2020 Agenda, UTE plans installation project of smart meters in households and companies in the country. As part of the World Day of the Information Society, in May 2019, the company announced its’ commitment to reach 50% of its 1,500,000 customers by the end of 2020.

Scope of the Report

A smart meter is an electronic machine that reads information such as the consumption of electric energy, current, voltage levels, and power factor. Smart meters transmit the information to the customer for greater accuracy of consumption behavior, and electricity suppliers for system monitoring and customer billing.

The different kinds of smart meters considered in the scope of this report are - smart gas meter, smart water meter, and smart electricity meter. The study also includes a categorization of the study of the applications of these meters for commercial, industrial, and residential purposes.

Smart gas and smart energy meters are deployed to measure the gas flow and electricity consumption, using wireless communication, thereby allowing infrastructural maintenance, remote location monitoring, and automatic billing.

A smart water meter uses wireless communication technologies to measure water flow in real-time, allowing remote location monitoring and infrastructural maintenance through leak detection.

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Key Market Trends

Need for Improvement in Utility Efficiency to Drive the Market

• Many developing nations within the region are facing problems with energy efficiency, due to the increasing economic activities, which has substantially increased energy consumption rates. These countries also account for the majority share of carbon emissions. Thus, governments across the region are focusing on decreasing their emissions by focusing on renewable energy sources and increasing the efficiency of the existing network by deploying smart metering systems and other technologies.
• Owing to enhancing their energy efficiency, major countries in the region have already formed regulations, and other countries are following suit. Such developments in the region are forcing businesses and homes to adopt energy efficiency solutions.
• Further, smart meters adoption is expected to grow significantly, fueled by the UN climate target and related energy efficiency measures. Smart gas meters help reduce fuel consumption of gas heating systems, indirectly, affecting the growth of a fully automated grid. Such trends are expected to boost the adoption of smart meters worldwide.
• Deployment of smart grids and smart metering systems provides solutions to curb energy wastage in the industry. Implementation of smart metering systems enables energy suppliers to continuously monitor electricity usage by employing smart meter systems at multiple points in the grid.

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