Cloud Solutions for a Smarter Grid

• Publication date: March 2013
• Report size: 22 pages

Abstract Zpryme forecasts the smart grid related cloud services market to reach $4 billion by 2020. Global smart grid technology deployments are not only re-shaping the global energy landscape, but they are also poised to challenge the traditional business, IT, operations, and management structures that utilities have grown accustomed to over the past 50 years. To prepare for such change, utilities must embrace new business models a...

Abstract

Zpryme forecasts the smart grid related cloud services market to reach $4 billion by 2020. Global smart grid technology deployments are not only re-shaping the global energy landscape, but they are also poised to challenge the traditional business, IT, operations, and management structures that utilities have grown accustomed to over the past 50 years. To prepare for such change, utilities must embrace new business models and operational architectures that will allow them to meet the current and future needs of their customers. Highly scalable and cost-effective cloud solutions will play a key role in allowing both small and large utilities adapt to such changes.

Cloud technologies have experienced explosive growth in the IT industry. Successful applications of cloud technology have been demonstrated in fields ranging from human resources to healthcare and have drawn the attention of utilities worldwide. Many of these utilities have invested substantial amounts of capital in hardware installations, particularly in the areas of AMI and sensor deployments. Now that the hardware is in place, they are looking for ways to optimize and analyze the voluminous data being generated from these devices. Thus they are looking to cloud services as a solution to manage their data externally, reduce IT costs, optimize their infrastructure, and increase their ability to rapidly scale their solutions to meet their future business needs.

Our forecast indicates the market for cloud solutions for utilities will experience dynamic growth over the next 8-10 years, with an average annual growth rate of 25%. Growth will be moderate in the short-term, primarily led by North America and Europe, and accelerated later by Asia Pacific, which has been slower to adopt cloud services. However, by 2015 Asia Pacific will surpass Europe, and will do the same for North America in 2019, and by 2020 will account for the largest share of the global cloud services market. The major application areas for cloud solutions will be in distribution system software and applications, AMI, and data management and analytics.

Zpryme has refined its forecasting models over dozens of reports and vendor and utility surveys and interviews to produce granular projections based on expected demand and our first-hand knowledge of the utility and cloud market. Complementing these metrics, our report includes solution offerings from key vendors and a brief of leading utilities that are deploying cloud based solutions.

To make this a truly industry-first report for actionable planning, the combined expertise of Zpryme’s global research team and Smart Grid Advisory Board provide a concise set of strategic insights to capitalize on the global Cloud Services for Utilities market opportunity. This includes our overall go-to-market recommendations, major application areas, market drivers, key success factors for market entry, and our market outlook from 2012 to 2020. For more information, please refer to the table of contents below.

Global Software And Consulting Industry

Table of Contents

Executive Summary 2
Key Takeaways by the Numbers 2
Application Segmentation 3
Recommendations and Opportunities 5
Market Overview 6
State of the Market 6
Regulations, Policies & Government Initiatives 7
Technology Definition and Segments 8
Global Market Value Forecasts 9
Global Market Value Forecast, 2012 – 2020 9
Global Smart Grid Cloud Services Market Value Forecast by Region, 2012 – 2020 9
• North America
• Central and South America
• Europe
• Asia-Pacific
• Rest of the World (ROW)
Global Smart Grid Cloud Services Market Value Forecast by Application, 2012 – 2020 9
• AMI Software and Applications
• Distribution System Software and Applications
• Transmission System Software and Applications
• Customer Systems
• Data Management and Analytics
• Other
Methodology 10
Drivers of Cloud Based Solutions 11
Complexity of Technology 11
Cost Reduction 11
Rapidly Evolving Environment 11
Scale 11
Major Smart Grid Applications 12
AMI 12
GIS 12
Demand Response 12
Distributed Generation 12
Meter Data Management 12
Analytics 13
Customer Care and Billing 13
Asset Management 13
Home Energy and Building Management 13
Key Players and Solutions 14
• ABB
• Alstom Grid
• Cisco
• Comverge
• Elster
• eMeter (a Siemens Company)
• EnerNOC
• GE
• GridMaven
• IBM
• Itron
• Landis + Gyr
• Microsoft and Telvent
• Oracle
• Proximetry
• Schneider Electric
• SAP
• Silver Spring Networks
• Tendril
• Verdeeco
Utilities Leading the Way 16
National Grid (US) 16
Northwestern Energy 16
City of Palo Alto 16
San Diego Gas and Electric 16
European Union Consortium 17
National Grid (UK) 17
Keys to Entering the Cloud Market 18
Zpryme’s Market Outlook, 2012 – 2020 19