Smart meter will become the mainstream of the industry's future development

Introduction: As the core equipment of the smart grid, smart meters are bound to grow rapidly with the growth of smart grid deployment. Currently, inductive meters have already been phased out globally. Analysys International Research predicts that in 2015, the global smart metering and network infrastructure technology applications will exceed the market size of US$15 billion.

China clearly stated in the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” outline that “promote the construction of smart grids, effectively strengthen the construction and transformation of urban and rural power grids, and increase the power grid's ability to optimally configure electric power and reliability of power supply.” The development of smart grids has become a social consensus. In order to realize the healthy and sustainable development of the smart grid, the national grid has steadily advanced the smart grid construction in phases. The past pilot phase was planned for 2009-2010, and the comprehensive construction phase for 2011-2015, and lead promotion for 2016-2020. stage.

The output of China's electric energy meter has entered a steady development stage since 2006, and has maintained a slight increase every year. Analysys International predicts that the output of electric energy meters for the year 2010 will be 122.29 million units, an increase of 3% year-on-year in 2009.

Electronic watt-hour meter has occupied the dominant position in the electric energy meter market in China. The replacement of inductive watt-hour meter with electronic watt-hour meter is a general trend. With the rapid development of electronic information technology and the user's requirements for meter accuracy and function, the industrial structure of the meter is gradually changing. With the advantages of multi-function, high-precision, multi-rate, and automatic meter reading, the electronic energy meter surpassed the inductive power meter for the first time in 2005 and showed an upward trend year by year. By 2009, the sales of the electronic energy meter reached 6, 9.3 million, nearly 60 million more than inductive power meters.

Smart energy meters will become the mainstream of the industry's future development Smart grid construction will provide tremendous opportunities for the development of the meter market. "UHV" and "intelligence" have become themes for the development of the "12th Five-Year" power grid. To speed up the construction of a unified and strong smart grid, the State Grid Corporation of China has organized a series of standards for smart energy meters, and proposed that large-scale promotion of the use of smart energy meters in the future. Existing energy meter products will also be gradually replaced with smart energy meters.

At the end of 2009, the State Grid conducted the first centralized bidding for electricity meters. In 2010, the centralized tender for electricity meters was fully implemented. The amount of tenders increased significantly. The number of centralized tenders exceeded the market expectation. The annual number of tenders for smart meters reached 45.33 million. It is expected that tenders for smart meters will remain high until 2012, and the total number of electricity meters that need to be rebuilt and replaced each year will reach 60 million in the next two years, and the market capacity will reach 18 billion yuan at a single price of 300 yuan. .

The international market has become an important market for electric energy meter sales in China. The export of electric energy meters is mainly based on the bidding and purchasing of electric power users, and the market has a long development cycle. In recent years, with the improvement of the international competitiveness of China's electric energy meter manufacturing enterprises, the export products have gone from low-grade products. To the development of electronic and intelligent middle-to-high-end products, the market has also entered the developed countries such as Europe and the United States from underdeveloped countries, and the export has initially taken shape. In 2010, China exported 18.95 million electric energy meter products, of which the electronic energy meter accounted for 71.1%.

Under the general trend of large-scale global smart grid construction, the future international electric energy meter market, especially the smart meter market, will have a broader demand. At the same time, with the continuous improvement of the independent innovation capability and technological level of the electric energy meter manufacturing enterprises in China, and the comprehensive The enhancement of competitive advantage will occupy a greater market share in the international market.

The industry competition is becoming increasingly fierce. M&A and restructuring are imperative. After several years of development and market competition, the production concentration, intensiveness, and scale of electric instrument and meter manufacturing enterprises have been further improved, and a few energy meter companies have led the way. The development of the entire industry. There is a structural overcapacity in the domestic industry's production capacity. In particular, the market for inductive power meters and mid- to low-end products is highly competitive, and prices have become an important means of competition. In the electric energy meter industry, the transition from inductive to full-electronic products, the application of new smart grid technologies and the stringent requirements of bidders' qualifications in the centralized bidding of the State Grid have accelerated the reshuffling of the electric energy meter industry and competition in the industry. The situation changes, market share will be concentrated in large companies, and mergers and acquisitions in the industry are imperative.