Quectel Wireless Solutions, the IoT solutions provider, is using this year’s Enlit conference in Bilbao to showcase technology it says will support the accelerating shift from first- to second-generation smart meters.
The company, which is exhibiting at the event running from 18th to 20th November, said rising global deployments of electricity, water, and gas meters are fuelling demand for more sophisticated connectivity components. IoT Analytics estimates that worldwide smart meter installations surpassed 1.06bn units at the end of 2023, with growth continuing across all regions.
Markets are expanding at both ends of the maturity spectrum. Developing economies are rolling out smart electricity meters at scale for the first time, while advanced markets are upgrading to second-generation devices capable of two-way communication, enabling households to manage consumption and integrate their own power generation more effectively.
Berg Insight forecasts that the installed base of water-utility AMI endpoints in Europe and North America will double between 2024 and 2030. In Europe, the research group reported that smart gas meter installations rose to 55.9m units in 2023, representing 45% penetration.
The shift to second-generation meters reflects changing expectations of what the devices should deliver. Early deployments focused on streamlining consumption-data collection for utilities. Newer models are designed to provide more detailed insights to end-users, support demand-response services, and reduce utilities’ operational expenditure by cutting truck rolls and improving compliance with regulatory mandates. In the US, such devices are expected to account for nearly three-quarters of annual smart meter shipments by 2030, according to Berg Insight.
Quectel said its portfolio of modules, antennas, and design services is intended to help utilities and manufacturers optimise products for varying power constraints and connectivity requirements. “A power-constrained water meter, for example, can utilise power saving mode and extended discontinuous reception technologies to maximise its lifetime, minimising engineer visits to replace a battery,” said Delbert Sun, Vice General Manager of the Product Department at Quectel.
The company is positioning itself as a partner for utilities migrating legacy meters to second-generation systems, emphasising the importance of replacing older devices with more capable, interoperable models while managing operational complexity.
Quectel’s line-up includes NB-IoT and LTE Cat M1 modules such as the BG95 and BG950S-GL for low-power wide-area deployments, as well as LTE Cat 1 and Cat 1 bis products including the EG800 and EC200 series. For sub-GHz and mesh networks, it offers Wi-SUN, Wireless M-Bus, Sub-GHz Proprietary, and LoRa-based modules. Bluetooth- and Zigbee-capable components, alongside a portfolio of embedded and external antennas, round out the company’s offering for next-generation AMI systems.
Its Bluetooth Low Energy range, including the HCM511S and HCM111Z modules, is aimed at compact, battery-powered devices requiring long life and stable wireless connectivity, such as water and gas meters.
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