United States Smart Meter Market Size & Share Analysis - Growth Trends And Forecast (2025 - 2030)

United States Smart Meter Market Trends and Insights

Higher Consumer Awareness and Federal Mandates

Federal infrastructure legislation has re-ordered utility investment priorities. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act allocates USD 65 billion for grid resilience, positioning smart meters as foundational assets rather than optional upgrades. Consumer attitudes have flipped from skepticism to demand as extreme weather events spotlight grid fragility. State commissions increasingly embed Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) requirements into rate cases, cutting the red tape that previously delayed rollouts. The DOE Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships program reserves USD 10.9 billion for projects that pair smart meters with flexibility solutions,^{[1]U.S. Department of Energy, “DOE Announces Nearly USD 11 Billion for Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships,” energy.gov} while Massachusetts approved USD 1.17 billion of AMI spend across three utilities in 2024.^{[2]Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, “Electric Sector Modernization Plans Approval,” mass.gov} This alignment eliminates stranded-asset risk and fast-tracks statewide installation schedules.

Expansion of Advanced Metering Infrastructure Funding Programs

The market is benefiting from a shift toward formula-based federal allocations that guarantee multi-year capital availability, easing balance-sheet pressure for regulated utilities. GRIP grants now rank cyber-security compliance and open-standards interoperability as scoring criteria, tilting awards toward vendors with hardened architectures.^{[3]Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, “Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity,” cisa.gov} Rural electric cooperatives are new power players, pooling demand under joint procurement groups to draw bulk discounts for meters and cellular modules. State match-funding-such as California’s Self-Generation Incentive Program-further leverages federal dollars, while domestic-content rules channel spending to manufacturers like Badger Meter that operate U.S. plants. The predictable funding pipeline encourages larger, contiguous deployment blocks, accelerating network effects and data monetization potential.

Utility Decarbonization and Electrification Roadmaps

Net-zero pledges by Pacific Gas and Electric (2040) and Xcel Energy (2050) cannot be met without interval data resolution well beyond the hourly reads of legacy meters. Electric-vehicle adoption and heat-pump installations add load volatility that demands 15-minute visibility and automated demand response to avert distribution bottlenecks. Vehicle-to-grid pilots run by PG&E and Itron already use meter telemetry to limit feeder congestion during rapid-charge periods. Storage mandates in states like California and New York require accurate performance verification for grid-service payments, further elevating data integrity standards. These requirements extend the meter’s role from billing engine to edge sensor, opening new service revenue for analytics, forecasting, and behind-the-meter optimization.

Rise of Time-of-Use Tariffs Driving Real-Time Metering Needs

Dynamic pricing is no longer experimental. Commonwealth Edison’s Peak Time Savings program proved that real-time rate signals can shave 15% off system peaks. California’s migration toward income-tiered fixed charges plus time-varying volumetric rates amplifies the need for meters that can timestamp kilowatt-hours in 15-minute increments. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Order 2222 pushes the envelope further by mandating 5-minute settlement for distributed resources participating in wholesale markets. Utilities therefore require metrology that integrates seamlessly with rate engines and customer portals. The result is a feedback loop-more granular tariffs promote behavioral response, which, in turn, validates the return on AMI capital.

Cyber-Security and Privacy Concerns in AMI Networks

The biggest near-term drag on rollouts is the heightened focus on supply-chain integrity. NIST Cyber-Security Framework 2.0 elevates vendor vetting from a checklist to a board-level governance issue. Utilities are commissioning third-party penetration tests before signing purchase orders, adding months to procurement cycles. State commissions now require formal cyber-risk mitigation plans in AMI filings; NARUC guidance specifically calls out encryption, key management, and incident-response playbooks. Utilities will not completely halt deployments, but the added controls slow volume ramps and raise non-hardware costs.

Supply-Chain Disruptions for Semiconductor Components

Lead times for communication chipsets remain above pre-pandemic norms, even after new fabs announced under the CHIPS Act. While meter manufacturers have diversified designs to accommodate second-source silicon, certification of alternative parts can take quarters. Natural disasters, such as 2024’s typhoon-related plant shutdowns in Southeast Asia, instantly ripple through order books. Domestic production expansions by Siemens and Schneider Electric will help, but their new U.S. lines will not reach full output until at least 2027. For now, utilities hedge schedules by splitting awards among multiple vendors, but that tactic undercuts economies of scale.

Segment Analysis

By Type: Electricity Dominance Amid Rising Water Momentum

Smart electricity meters retained a 68.57% share of the United States smart meter market in 2024. They rode on regulatory mandates, cost-recovery guarantees, and field-proven ROI from outage management and remote connect or disconnect functions. The segment’s entrenched vendor ecosystem allows utilities to negotiate favorable pricing, which, in turn, supports large-block tenders in rural territories. The United States smart meter market size for electricity deployments is expected to reach 21.3 million units by 2030, expanding in lockstep with grid-edge automation upgrades.

Growth in water metering is accelerating because municipalities face mounting leakage fines and drought-related conservation goals. Although unit prices are higher than for electric meters, rising water tariffs improve the payback calculus. Cellular modules are frequently specified to avoid RF signal loss inside subterranean vaults, and cloud analytics pinpoint non-revenue water. Consequently, the water segment is projected to add 1.2 million new nodes between 2025 and 2030, closing part of the volume gap with electricity meters. Gas and heat meters trail in both absolute and relative terms because safety codes and complex installation rules extend project timelines. Still, advances in LPWAN and explosion-proof enclosures could invigorate rural gas deployments in the latter half of the decade.

Note: Segment shares of all individual segments available upon report purchase

By End-User: Residential Scale Meets Utility-Owned Upside

The residential segment accounted for 72.43% of installations in 2024, reflecting wrap-around utility programs that combine meter rollout, customer portals, and demand response enrollment. Because installation crews can move house-to-house with standardized processes, per-unit labor costs are low, reinforcing the segment’s leadership in the United States smart meter market. The United States smart meter market share for residential users is unlikely to drop below 70% before 2030, even as other end-users accelerate deployments.

Utility-owned operational meters-installed on transformers, capacitor banks, and distribution feeders-represent the fastest-growing slice, advancing at a 4.93% CAGR. These devices deliver visibility into loading profiles, voltage deviations, and phase imbalances. Utilities deploy them in tandem with DER hosting-capacity studies to defer capital upgrades. Commercial and industrial adoption remains healthy but not spectacular; many large facilities already sport building-management systems that substitute for utility-supplied meters. Still, the push toward carbon disclosure standards is nudging corporations toward utility-grade data for audit trails and Scope 2 reporting.

By Communication Technology: RF Mesh Holds the Line but Cellular Climbs

RF mesh networks captured 48.57% market share in 2024. Their self-healing architecture and low operating expense remain attractive where customer density justifies multi-hop topology. Utilities also value the technology’s independence from carrier contracts, preserving long-term cost control. However, carrier-grade cellular is gaining momentum because coverage maps have improved and NB-IoT price points have fallen. The United States smart meter market size for cellular-based endpoints is forecast to swell to 9.4 million units by 2030.

Meter makers are responding with dual-SIM or software-defined radio options that let utilities pivot among carriers without field visits. Private LTE pilots conducted by Itron show latency reductions suitable for distribution automation, not merely billing.^{[4]5G Americas, “5G Advanced Evolution to 6G White Paper,” 5gamericas.org} Power-line communication retains a foothold in regions with robust underground cabling, while LoRa and Wi-SUN are carving out specialized niches in campus-style deployments. In every case, cyber-security layers-certificate management, VPN tunnels, zero-trust segmentation-are integral, reflecting rising regulatory expectations.

Note: Segment shares of all individual segments available upon report purchase

By Component: Hardware Weight Faces Services Lift

Hardware still accounted for 72.21% of 2024 spending because meters, routers, and antennas are physical necessities. Itron, Landis and Gyr, and Badger Meter lean on U.S. production bases to satisfy domestic-content rules, which, in turn, secure GRIP grants. Even so, utilities increasingly concede that value lies in the data life-cycle. Consequently, service contracts covering meter-data management, predictive analytics, and threat hunting are expanding at a 4.63% CAGR.

The United States smart meter market size linked to service revenues is projected to pass USD 1.9 billion by 2030, narrowing the gap with hardware billings. Software platforms that normalize, validate, and push interval data into utility SCADA systems are the linchpin. Managed-service providers bundle upgrades, patching, and regulatory reporting into monthly fees, sparing utilities from specialist headcount. Hardware vendors are therefore repositioning as platform orchestrators, bundling equipment with lifetime data services to lock in annuity streams.

Geography Analysis

The South retained 36.14% of national revenue in 2024, owing to streamlined rate-case approvals and synergies between investor-owned utilities and rural electric cooperatives. FirstEnergy’s Ohio deployment, budgeted at USD 421 million, exemplifies the region’s appetite for multiservice AMI that integrates voltage optimization and outage analytics. Federal cost-share grants turbo-charge smaller utilities that previously lacked capital access, cementing the South’s leadership through 2030.

The West, by contrast, is scaling projects around policy imperatives rather than purely cost optics. State renewable portfolio standards compel utilities to accommodate rooftop solar, battery storage, and vehicle-to-grid power flows. Pacific Gas and Electric’s collaboration with Apple populates iOS dashboards with real-time usage, illustrating how the meter acts as a data gateway for consumer electronics. As similar programs propagate across Washington, Oregon, and Nevada, regional CAGR is expected to hit 4.59%, the nation’s fastest.

The Northeast and Midwest show steady, policy-aligned expansion. Massachusetts’ synchronized approvals for Eversource, National Grid, and Unitil remove historical patchwork inefficiencies and establish a common technical baseline. In the Midwest, Xcel Energy and Great River Energy bundle AMI upgrades with winter-peak demand response programs. Across all regions, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act softens financial friction, ensuring that previously marginal projects achieve board-level approval.