An increase in the machine-to-machine market may be driven by smart grid adoption, which is in its very beginnings in Brazil and other Latin American countries due to the lack of regulation. However, companies such as Elster Group believes that both Brazil and Latin America are potential growth markets. “It’s a good opportunity for us, since Latam economy is growing faster and the head is Brazil,” said Elster’s CEO Simon Beresford-Wylie in a recent interview for RCR Wireless News.
Elster has a global presence in 130 countries and focuses on providing measurement and control mechanisms for gas, electricity and water companies. “Utilities companies want to know what’s going on in their lines. Smart grids help them to gain efficiency and give customers more transparency,” explain Frank Hyldmar, executive vice president for the business unit at Elster Group. According to Hyldmar, enterprises are also concerned about reducing their carbon foot prints and smart grid can help them to do that.
But if Latin American countries are going to follow worldwide trends in the smart-grid space, regulations will have to be adopted to force utility companies to change meters from analog to digital ones. That is no easy task because the governments and utilities will have to decide how to finance the projects, especially if the governments don’t approve rate increases. “While companies wait for legislation, some of them are working in some pilot projects and trying solutions,” said VP for Latin America Geraldo Guimarães.
Guimarães said that Brazilian energy company Light has been partnering with Elster for the last two years and is testing Elster’s produsts. “They are one of the most innovative utilities in Brazil. But we also have partnership with Eletropaulo and Grupo Rede Energia; and we are showing Aneel [regulator agency] how it works.”
According to Elster, United States is further along in deploying smart meters. Company believes that by 2020 all of them will be smart. In Latin America, Elster counts 124 million end points of energy. “North America is moving quite quickly. In Latam, Colombia is ahead, because has some kind of governmental incentive. It is going to happen. The question in when,” said Beresford-Wylie.
From a telecommunications market perspective, executives pointed out that utilities have their own fiber-optical networks so they should be able to handle increased data traffic from the smart grid. But in some point this bill may come to carriers.
In the near future, several specialists predict that many appliances will use technologies like Zigbee, for example, to connect to a hub or directly to the utility company. Most likely, these connections will use a variety of technologies, including fiber, satellite, cellular and others.
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