Research from Swedish IoT analyst firm Berg Insight shows that smart meter penetration in the U.S. will reach 94 percent and 96 percent in Canada by 2029. That’s up from 80 percent in North America in 2023, according to the Smart Metering in North America report. This represents a compound annual growth rate of 3.8 percent between 2023 and 2029 with a total of 182.9 million units installed by the end of the forecast period.

“First-generation smart meter shipments will account for an increasingly smaller share of annual shipment volumes. In the next two years, first-generation projects by utilities such as AEP, PSEG, Xcel Energy, First Energy, PPL, Dominion Energy, National Grid, Ameren, Avangrid, Exelon, and AES will contribute to annual first-generation smart electricity meter shipments ranging from 5 to 7 million units. Meanwhile, second-generation smart meter deployments account for a growing share of annual smart meter shipment volumes and are forecast to account for more than 80 percent of yearly shipments by the end of the forecast period,” said Mattias Carlsson, IoT analyst at Berg Insight

The study shows that yearly shipments of smart electricity meters in North America will peak at 18.5 million in 2024 and gradually decline to 14.9 million units by 2029.

The development of smart metering technology in the North American market has recently shifted focus from replacement of older units to new demands beyond smart metering, according to the study. Utilities are looking to leverage their existing network canopies for a wider array of smart city applications. They also must address how to integrate the rapidly increasing number of electric vehicles and distributed energy resources into the grid infrastructure.

“The leading vendors are now in a race to develop and successfully market the most compelling use cases for second-generation smart metering technology. In addition to enhanced computing power, edge analytics and more frequent meter reads that offer a new range of benefits and control, utilities are increasingly seeking to combine various applications into a unified solution,” said Carlsson.