“We are already on the optimal course in the smart grids business and will be running at top speed in the future. A new age for power supplies is dawning with smart grids,” said Wolfgang Dehen, CEO of the Siemens Energy Sector. Siemens anticipates that orders for smart grid technologies will reach nearly €1 billion in the current fiscal year. “The smart grid market will see increasingly dynamic growth fuelled by climate change and economic stimulus programs. We want to grow twice as fast as the overall market,” added Dehen.
Bright future for smart grids worldwide
Overall, the smart grid market has three primary components: Smart metering (intelligent billing), grid intelligence (the grid infrastructure and its controls), and utility IT (intelligent data management). As evidenced by Siemens’ plans, smart grids have enormous growth potential. They are, for example, a prerequisite for reaching the EU’s 20-20-20 climate goals and are included in many of the economic stimulus programs throughout the world. The US government alone intends to invest around €3 billion here in the coming years. Siemens expects to receive orders worth around €15 billion from these programs by 2012.
“The world needs intelligent power grids in order to meet the growing demand for energy in a way that is eco-friendly and reliable. We estimate that the demand for electricity will double by 2030, due to trends like e-mobility, which is just emerging,” continued Dehen. According to studies, more than a billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions could be abated with intelligent power networks by 2020. Smart grids are also essential for integrating renewable power sources into power networks and for ensuring stable power supplies from solar and wind energy.
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