China leads the way in distribution automation!

Distribution automation, the ‘Darling’ of the Smart Grid to achieve $5 Billion

The Distribution Automation System market has become a top priority for smart grid utilities, across the board and around the world. In recent years, advanced metering infrastructure and demand response were the darlings of the industry, but now the utilities are turning their attention to improving efficiency and control in the distribution segment of the grid that lies between the substation and the meter.

Besides the tangible benefits of improving reliability and efficiency within grid operations, distribution automation system implementations and upgrades have another important attribute — the ability to deliver strong return on investment without requiring extensive consumer engagement or behavior change. In a nutshell, utilities are placing increased emphasis on adding greater intelligence and control capabilities to their distribution infrastructure.

Sovereign investment programs are focused on the expansion of capacity in emerging markets, upgrading of aging transmission and distribution infrastructure, and improvement of reliability and efficiency.

“The Electric Power Distribution Automation System market is being driven by the world’s continued demand for more energy as utilities are faced with the challenges of realizing a good ROI while providing a higher level of service to their customers. These challenges drive the need to conserve energy (specifically the energy lost in the distribution network), defer the building of additional generation facilities, and improve customer service,” according to Steve Clouther , author of ARC’s “Electric Power Distribution Automation Systems Worldwide Outlook”.

Distribution automation system providers
The distribution automation systems market has a diverse group of players and market share leaders, even though the typical range of a distribution network is relatively short; i.e., a distribution network carries electricity from a sub-station to consumers.

The market leaders for worldwide distribution automation are subsidiaries and/or divisions of large international control companies with an expansive global presence. Collectively, the top ten vendors account for 71% of the 2011 worldwide distribution automation systems market.

China is “all In” on the Smart Grid
At the 2011 Smart Grid World Forum in Beijing (October 2011), China’s State Grid Corporation announced plans to invest $250 billion (€205b) in electric power infrastructure upgrades over the next five years, of which $45 billion (€37b) is earmarked for smart grid technologies. According to its three-stage plan, China will invest another $240 billion (€197b) between 2016 and 2020 (including another $45 billion (€37b) toward smart grid technologies) to complete the build-out of a “stronger, smarter” Chinese power grid.

China to be a driving force in distribution automation
According to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) World Energy Outlook 2011, by 2015 China will overtake the US, and become the leader in total electric power generation capacity. And then, by 2035 China will consume nearly 70% more energy than the United States. With ex-plosive growth such as this, China leads the way in distribution automation.