NanoMarkets sees $6.3 billion smart grid sensor market by 2014

NanoMarkets has published a report on smart grid sensing, monitoring and control systems. The report says sales revenue for sensors and related software sold to the worldwide smart grid sector will be $6.3 billion by 2014 and double to $13 billion by 2018.

The report also says that sales of sensors and related software for home area network applications will be five times greater than today by 2014 at $1.1 billion. While home energy monitoring has been popular in the past, subsidized smart meter deployments will make it cost effective for the first time, driving growth.

Transformers, power companies' biggest capital investments, have traditionally been managed manually, retroactively and inefficiently. The report explains that next-generation sensors deployed at substations will help utilities avoid unplanned failures, reduce maintenance costs and extend useful transformer life. Thus, according to the report, transformer monitoring sensors will generate revenues of $935 million by 2014 , tripling to $2,725 billion by 2018.

The reprots presdicts Europe will account for almost 40 percent of the market in 2014, and hold on as the largest market for Smart Grid sensors until 2016. Asia, often considered to be the "land of opportunity" for Smart Grids, will remain behind Europe because European nations have focused on smart distribution, which is heavily dependent on sensor deployment. By contrast Asian countries have been more interested in building high capacity bulk transmission systems, according to the report.