An electricity meter, electric meter, electrical meter, or energy meter is a device that measures the amount of electric energy consumed by a residence, a business, or an electrically powered device.
Electric utilities use electric meters installed at customers' premises for billing purposes. They are typically calibrated in billing units, the most common one being the kilowatt hour (kWh). They are usually read once each billing period.
When energy savings during certain periods are desired, some meters may measure demand, the maximum use of power in some interval. "Time of day" metering allows electric rates to be changed during a day, to record usage during peak high-cost periods and off-peak, lower-cost, periods. Also, in some areas meters have relays for demand response load shedding during peak load periods.
An Electronic Energy Meter (EEM) functionally outperforms the traditional Ferrari’s wheel meter. One important advantage of EEM is that in non linear loads, its metering is highly accurate and electronic measurement is more robust than that of the conventional mechanical meters. The Power companies benefits from EEM in three significant ways.
With regards to the application segment, the residential segment is expected to constitute the fastest growing market from 2017 to 2022. The meters measure the electricity, water, and gas consumption and communicate this to the central utility system.
Growing demand for renewable energy along with the need for effective transmission facilities will drive the smart electric meter market. The grid integration of clean energy sources to sustain the energy mix protocol coupled with favourable government norms to fortify the deployment of these units will positively influence the industry landscape. Growing environmental concerns along with the national renewable energy targets followed by respective nations will further drive the business outlook.
Global smart commercial electricity meter market is anticipated to flourish at a CAGR of 8.5% over the forecast period. Further, smart commercial electricity meter market is driven by various factors such as growing awareness among the consumers regarding saving electricity and rising adoption of innovative technology by commercial sector to curb electricity expenses are envisioned to flourish the growth of smart commercial electricity meter market.