36 million more homes to get smart gas meters

36 million smart gas meter units, such as the EverBlu being trialed in France, could join the smart grid, further reducing energy consumption and allowing more consumers to monitor their power usage.

An August 9 report from market intelligence group Pike Research predicts that the global installation of smart gas meters will grow from around 8.5 million in 2009 to 36 million in 2016.

The market for smart meters, devices in the smart grid which monitor domestic electricity consumption, has attracted a lot of attention, investment and research; however some believe that the market for natural gas smart meters, referred to as ‘the other grid' has often been overlooked. The widespread installation of both gas and electric smart meters would reduce energy consumption, associated CO2 emissions and costs by allowing consumers to monitor their power usage and encouraging them to avoid using high consumption devices such as washing machines at peak times.

Pike Research predicts that the spread and integration of natural gas ‘smart meters' or Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) will attract the largest regional market in Europe with 13.5 million smart gas meters installed by 2016; the second largest market is forecast to be North America with 12.2 million smart grid meters installed in the same period. The rapid growth of gas infrastructure in the Asia Pacific area and Latin America is also thought to make it a large potential market for gas AMI.

Key players in the field of electrical smart grid meters and utilities Itron and Sensus also market a range of gas smart meters or gas AMI devices. Sensus recently released the FlexNet smart metering gas device, and on July 29, the main gas utility company in France, Gaz Reseau Distribution France (GrDF), announced that it had chosen the Itron gas smart meter EverBlu to use in a pilot test amongst 5000 residents in the northern French town of Saint-Omer. The EverBlu gas AMI also provides advantages to consumers as meter readings can be taken remotely without the inconvenience of someone from the gas company having to visit the house.

The European Union predicts 80 percent of households will have electrical smart meters by 2020.