Dive Summary:

• According to surveys sponsored by Elster and conducted by Zpryme, smart grid executives feel that utilities benefit most from smart meters because of better peak-usage control, improved asset management, and enhanced service operations.
• The survey also indicates that the industry will spend between $26 billion and $50 billion globally over the next five years on smart meters.
• As for automated meter infrastructure (AMI), 69 percent of respondents said there is a high potential for integration with distribution automation (DA); 35 percent of the executives said they would invest in AMI or DA over the next five years.

From the article:

In Elster Answers Smart Meter Trends 2012, 67% of 173 executives surveyed felt that utilities are either very or extremely familiar with smart meters, while only 3% of the respondents said utilities are unaware of the technology.

According to the survey, utilities benefit most from smart meters because of better peak-usage control (22%), improved asset management (20%) and enhanced service operations (15%). Customers, on the other hand, benefit most from smart meters because of better energy-usage management (51%), more transparent billing (17%) and faster service restoration (13%). ...