Central America & Caribbean Smart Grid: Market Forecast 2015 - 2025

DUBLIN, Feb. 27, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --Research and Markets

(http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/r6wghj/central_america) has announced the addition of the "Central America & Caribbean Smart Grid: Market Forecast (2015 - 2025)" report to their offering.

A regional study of the smart grid market across 11 Central American and Caribbean countries over the period 2015-2025 (64 pages + dataset).

The region will invest $3.3bn in smart grid infrastructure over the forecast period. This investment will target T&D losses of 20% across the region as well as high electricity prices averaging 19.8 cents per kWh.

The Central America and Caribbean region offers unique near-term opportunities for smart grid investment. The region has several strong positive market drivers. Most notably, Central America and the Caribbean averages nearly 20% total T&D losses, primarily due to electricity theft. This has created challenging financial conditions for utilities and is spurring a number of smart metering efforts, many of which are already underway. At the same time, overall high crime rates - particularly violent crime - make it difficult for utilities to secure permanent loss reductions and make deployments more challenging. Non-technical loss reduction efforts are still expected to drive near-term AMI deployments. In many Central American countries, AMI penetration rates will approach 90% by the end of the forecast period. But this is partly the result of small market sizes as the average market is just over one million customers. This reduces the overall market opportunity for vendors.

In addition to loss reduction, Central American and Caribbean countries will deploy smart grid infrastructure to incorporate renewable energy and employ demand response programs. These will help reduce electricity prices that average over 19 cents/kWh, in part due to expensive oilbased peaking plants. At the same time, countries in the region on average consume just over 1,000 kWh per person per year, which is less than half the emerging market average. This diminishes the overall savings potential of smart grid and demand response programs.

On balance, the case for smart grid infrastructure in the region is strong. With non-technical losses continuing to rise while smart grid costs decline, many utilities will see the clear benefits of large-scale deployments in the near-tomedium term. With strong economic and geographic ties to the US market, Central America's smart grid market is poised to accelerate over the course of the next decade.

Key questions answered in this study:

- How large will five smart grid market segments be for 11 countries in 2025?
- What are utility loss-reduction spending plans for the near-to-medium term?
- Which Central American and Caribbean countries have plans for full AMI rollouts?
- Who are the leading vendors in the region?

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/r6wghj/central_america

Media Contact: Laura Wood , +353-1-481-1716, press@researchandmarkets.net

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SOURCE Research and Markets