BOULDER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Today Pike Research announced the launch of its new Smart Grid IT Advisory Service, a subscription-based information tool that provides market intelligence and strategy insights for utilities, grid operators, investors, and vendors active in the emerging software and services market for smart grids. As new power, sensor, and information technologies continue to build momentum, bringing with them exponential data growth, new business models, and requirements for further transformation, the challenge of effective business analysis and strategy development in an increasingly disruptive market environment will place enormous demands on utilities’ supporting information infrastructure. Those demands will lead to increasing market opportunity for companies supplying IT and services to the leading players in the emerging smart grid ecosystem.

“The arrival of the smart grid brings a new level of complexity as silos of operations are broken down and new capabilities emerge based on large-scale information management, real-time data analysis, and the move to closed-loop systems for managing, monitoring, and controlling the smart grid,” says research director Eric Woods. “Applications such as outage management and asset management are also being radically overhauled by the integration of IT and operational technology (OT).”

As part of the Smart Grid IT service, Pike Research’s industry analysts offer timely and actionable market insights, covering specific technology and business sectors as well as overall market conditions and trends. Research reports include an in-depth examination of business models, technology issues, policy and regulatory factors, the competitive landscape, and market sizing, segmentation and forecasting.

Pike Research’s key findings and forecasts about the emerging Smart Grid IT sector include the following:

• Many of the largest utilities have already begun an overhaul of their CIS and billing systems, and as this wave intensifies, it will begin to penetrate the next tier of utilities over the next several years. Such systems upgrades will impact utilities representing 90 million electricity customers in the U.S. by 2015.
• The expansion of smart grid deployments is leading to significant growth in the market for meter data management systems and related professional services, which will push worldwide MDM market revenue from $52 million annually in 2011 to $490 million by 2018.
• The use of social media as a primary vehicle for customer interactions with their utilities is rising swiftly. Approximately 57 million customers worldwide will use social media to engage utilities in 2011, a number that will rise to 624 million customers by the end of 2017. Utility spending on social media, meanwhile, will increase to $317 million in 2017.
• By aligning business strategy, processes, and information assets, enterprise architecture can deliver better business decision-making, business-IT synergy, resource utilization, governance control, and speed to innovation, making it essential to utilities’ efforts to create a long-term roadmap and adjust effectively to the future smart grid.
• Some of the biggest innovations in smart grid IT are being driven by new application requirements such as electric vehicle charging systems, demand-side management applications, and distributed generation management, including virtual power plants and microgrids.
• Interest in virtual power plants (VPPs) is gaining significant momentum within the industry, and VPP capacity will increase by 65% between 2011 and 2017, rising from 55.6 gigawatts (GW) to 91.7 GW worldwide during that period.

Pike Research’s Smart Grid IT Advisory Service covers a wide range of utility IT systems that are enabling the smart grid, from back office to customer premises. Research topics include smart grid data analytics, customer information systems, distribution management systems, cyber security, meter data management, managed services, and many more. Our analysis comprises market drivers and barriers, business models, technology issues, and the emerging competitive landscape for IT systems and services in the smart grid world. Key industry players are profiled in depth, and detailed forecasts are provided for each key market segment. Executive Summaries and further information about the Advisory Service are available for free download on Pike Research’s website.

Pike Research is a market research and consulting firm that provides in-depth analysis of global clean technology markets. The company’s research methodology combines supply-side industry analysis, end-user primary research and demand assessment, and deep examination of technology trends to provide a comprehensive view of the Smart Energy, Smart Grid, Smart Transportation, Smart Industry, and Smart Buildings sectors. For more information, visit www.pikeresearch.com or call +1.303.997.7609.

CONTACT:

Pike Research
Richard Martin, +1-303-997-7609
press@pikeresearch.com

KEYWORDS:   United States  North America  Colorado

INDUSTRY KEYWORDS:   Building Systems  Energy  Utilities  Other Energy  Technology  Data Management  Hardware  Software  Social Media  Environment  Communications  Construction & Property

MEDIA: