'Smart Gas Meter Penetration Rate in Europe Reached 45% in 2023'

Last week, industry experts at the analyst and consulting firm Berg Insight – we reference them fairly often, given their team’s research and services regarding IoT and smart digitization developments – revealed new insights in a report titled “The Penetration Rate of Smart Gas Meters in Europe Reached 45% in 2023.”

I’ve provided below the long-story-short data breakdown for you, readers:

• The installed base of smart gas meters in Europe amounted to a whopping 55.9 million units in 2023, equivalent to the aforementioned penetration rate of 45%. Berg Insight reports that this base is “forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 6.8% by 2028, reaching approximately 77.6 million units.

• The U.K., Italy and Belgium were the most active markets, together accounting for 86% of all 2023 smart gas meter shipments. (Ongoing progress in France, the Netherlands and Spain was also noted.)

• The significance here is simple: In past years, European smart gas meters haven’t been network “in quite the same way as their counterparts in the electricity sector,” per Berg Insight. Yet now, a change to what we can call the “smart meter status quo” may be on the horizon as new LPWA technologies become more even more readily available than they already are.

• Berg Insight IoT Analyst Mattias Carlsson stated that “The Italian gas sector was the first in Europe to initiate large-scale adoption of NB-IoT as a primary smart meter connectivity choice and in 2023 the installed base of gas meters with NB-IoT connectivity in the country reached more than 2.5 million at the end of the year. We anticipate that by the end of the forecast period NB-IoT will become the go-to connectivity option for smart gas meters, not only in Italy but also in several other European markets.”

The report further laid out annual shipment volumes, primary models for cellular communication demands, Zigbee’s market share in all this, and an “anticipated increase in the use of hydrogen in European gas supply operations.” For the full rundown of the data, read here.

Also, peruse supplemental research studies from Berg Insight here.