Frost & Sullivan unveils top 10 energy and ICT smart trends

LONDON, ENGLAND: Frost & Sullivan has identified the top 10 industry trends that will shape the future of convergence between the Energy and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sectors.

As energy systems make the transitional leap from 19th century to 21st century smart technology, significant opportunities are being created for a range of energy and communication solutions.

In an upcoming online conference on 'Top 10 Energy & ICT Smart Trends', Frost & Sullivan Industry Manager, ICT, Yiru Zhong, and Senior Consultant, Energy & Environment, Jonathan Robinson, will identify and discuss the most important trends that can have a meaningful impact on the smart grid by 2020. The webinar will take place on Wednesday, 2 October 2013, at 15.00 BST.

According to Frost & Sullivan, smart equipment investment will increase by almost 400 percent from $27 billion in 2011 to $125 billion by 2017. This covers a range of investment from advanced metering and grid automation to high voltage cabling and demand response. However, even this increase in investment is not enough to truly enable the smart grid to become a reality. The simple fact is that the scale of potential investment is so great that energy utilities are being forced to assess and prioritise which projects to give the green light to and which to delay.

"There is actually limited bandwith within the energy utility companies to handle all the potential innovations that are taking place," said Robinson. "Factors such as the growth in renewable energy and distributed generation are proving quite disruptive to the status quo in the energy market. Utilities are having to take on this challenge, whilst also investing in a range of grid upgrade projects."

For ICT vendors, knowing the investment priorities and actions of the energy utility companies are vital to determining where their products and solutions will be required.

"Very often, the ICT sector is ready to go with a particular technology, believing strong demand exists, but is then puzzled by the slow rate of adoption in the energy sector. Having an understanding of the energy sector's smart grid priorities is extremely helpful to determine which ICT tools are most relevant at the time," said Ms Zhong.