The U.S. smart grid market is highly incentivized by the U.S. government. To date, companies like Honeywell, General Electric, Trilliant Networks and Itron have received between around 60 and 300 million U.S. dollars in funding. Under the Smart Grid Investment Grant program, the United States aims to accelerate the modernization and revolution of the country's electric transmission and distribution systems. The United States generates a large volume of its revenue from transmission and distribution equipment exports from Canada.
Smart meters enable utilities to secure revenue collection through accurate reading and energy billing. Automation in the sector is expected to be dominated by investments into self-healing energy networks that are able to remotely identify and fix faulty areas in the system. These capabilities will allow for a reduction in time spent on restoring services during outages, such as those caused by storms. Integrating distribution automation and the sharing of infrastructure will help to further reduce operation costs in the industry.
