|
Current News
Brazil's Smart Grid Market To Reach $36.6 Billion by 2022
April 6, 2012
[ back ] [ comment ]
Smart grid investments in Brazil will reach $36.6 billion by 2022, according to a new study released today by Northeast Group, LLC. Utilities in Brazil will use the smart grid investments to help reduce electricity theft, improve the reliability of electric infrastructure, offer new pricing plans for customers and enable economic growth.
"Brazil's rapidly growing economy is straining the existing electric infrastructure, and smart grid investments will be critical to address the many challenges facing the sector," says an analyst with Northeast Group. "Brazil, with the fifth largest population in the world, is eager to upgrade its infrastructure in the run-up to the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics when it will be on the world stage."
"A very significant problem in Brazil is the high rate of electricity theft. This is both a public safety issue and also unfairly requires paying customers to subsidize those stealing power. Smart meters are very effective tools in helping reduce electricity theft," the analytis added.
Smart metering -- or advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) -- will be the smart grid program leading the way in Brazil. The centerpiece of Brazil's smart grid plans is a target set by ANEEL, the Brazilian electricity regulator, to deploy 63 million AMI meters by 2021. Detailed regulations are expected within the next year and these will drive large-scale AMI deployments across the country. In addition, distribution automation, home energy management and other smart grid technologies are expected to grow in Brazil over the coming decade.
"Establishing the regulatory framework will be the catalyst for large-scale AMI deployments," according to Northeast Group. "But even in advance of these regulations, Brazilian utilities have been very active in piloting AMI. Almost all of the utilities have piloted AMI in some form and five of the largest utility groups with non-technical losses above 14% found that AMI deployments can bring immediate benefits by reducing theft. Several Brazilian utilities are even already experimenting with full-scale 'smart city' concepts that leverage a number of smart grid applications, such as distributed renewable generation and sophisticated home area networks."
Northeast Group is forecasting that the smart meter market alone in Brazil will grow to $17.8 billion by 2022, with a total of 74.1 million meters deployed in the country. Additional value in the Brazilian smart grid market will come from distribution automation, transmission-level investments (primarily phasor measurement units used for wide area measurement), home area networks, distributed generation technologies, and electric vehicle supply equipment.
Northeast Group's forecast is based on the assumption that large-scale smart meter deployments will begin slowly in 2013 and pick up steam in the 2014?15 period. Meanwhile, distribution automation technologies will be deployed simultaneously at lower scale as utilities seek to improve reliability, and associated home energy management technologies will be incrementally deployed as the AMI meter deployments are completed. It is assumed that smart grid deployment will begin gradually but pick up pace as the cost of various technologies decline in real terms throughout the decade and utilities solidify their smart grid plans.
The study - Brazil Smart Grid: Market Forecast (2012-2022) - forecasts 14 segments of the smart grid market in Brazil. These include market values for AMI segments (meter hardware, communications, IT, professional services and installation costs); distribution automation segments (substation automation; fault detection, isolation and restoration (FDIR); volt/VAR optimization (VVO); and grid monitoring and control); wide area measurement (synchrophasors), and home energy management segments (home area networks, electric vehicle supply equipment and smart solar inverters) through 2022.
For more information, visit www.northeast-group.com.
Source: Northeast Group, LLC. Figure reprinted with permission.
Comments
Please note: By posting a comment, you agree to our Terms & Conditions.
|
|
|
|
|