The increasing electricity wastage and the rising carbon footprint being produced during power production are becoming major issues in several countries with each passing day. Apart from over-burdening the public utilities sector, these factors are also responsible for the rapid environmental degradation across the world.

Moreover, these factors are massively accelerating the depletion of fossil fuel reserves, on account of their overexploitation. Because of these reasons, smart grid technologies are increasingly being adopted in the utilities sector of many countries.

Grid connectivity is normally a one-way communication between the end users and power transmission companies. However, the integration of smart grid technologies converts this one-way communication into two-way communication, which allows the transmission companies to take back extra power from the end users who are generating electricity at their commercial and residential installations. As per the estimates of the International Energy Agency, the U.S. government will invest $2.1 trillion in the development of smart grid technology infrastructure by 2035.

Besides reducing electricity wastage, the adoption of smart grid technologies also helps mitigate the carbon footprint by reducing the overconsumption of electricity. This is done with the help of smart meters, which allow the consumers to know about their power consumption levels. Additionally, the usage of superconducting cables significantly reduces losses during power transmission. Furthermore, this technology helps majorly in optimizing and monitoring peak loads and ensures the safe delivery of power by detecting faults in the transmission line.

Due to the above-mentioned factors, the demand for smart grid technology will rise enormously in the coming years, which will, in turn, cause the surge of the global smart grid technology market in the upcoming years. The installation of smart grids is usually very expensive, but, in the long run, these grids will help reduce over expenditure and financial losses. Moreover, the installation of grids will drastically reduce the pollution levels over a significant period of time. 

Some of the major software components of these grids are— advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), network management system, distribution management system, substation automation, grid asset management, billing and customer information system, and grid security. Out of these, the usage of the distribution management systems is currently being observed to be quite high, due to the ability of these systems to provide sage, proficient, and consistent power with the help of advanced analytics via the integration of various systems and solutions.

Some of these systems and solutions are— energy management systems (EMSs), advanced fault and network analysis, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), and outage management systems (OMSs). According to the forecast of P&S Intelligence, a market research firm based in India, the North American smart grid technology market exhibited huge expansion during the last few years. Furthermore, this market will be very prosperous in the future years, on account of the early adoption of various smart grid projects.

In addition to the aforementioned factor, the huge investments being made by Canada and the U.S. in smart grid technology will massively augment the sales of these systems in the North American region in the coming years. The industry will also grow explosively in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region in the future, on account of the abundant availability of various renewable and conventional energy resources and the growing implementation of community-based micro smart grids in the rural areas. 

Therefore, it can be said with surety that the requirement for smart grid technology will soar all over the world in the coming years, primarily because of the rising concerns being raised in several countries over the increasing electricity wastage and carbon footprints and the rapid depletion of fossil fuel reserves around the world.