Energy security and a need to cut losses from gas theft will help drive the growth of the global smart gas meter market by 32% by 2023.

This is according to a new report analyzing smart gas meters including the current market size, growth trends and forecasts to 2023 released by US-based global research company Transparency Market Research.

The report predicts the global smart gas market valued at US$0.9 billion in 2014 will reach US$10.5 billion by 2023.

Europe leading smart gas market
The report, which analyses the smart gas market by type, end user, region and technology, predicts global sales of smart gas meters will be dominant in France, the UK, and Italy due to implementation of regulatory mandates to reduce carbon footprints in Europe.

Asia Pacific, Central America, and the Middle East will follow Europe in growth of the market.

The study findings reflect that in 2014 North America held the largest share of 64% of the global smart gas market while Middle East and Africa showed slow growth. However, the report expects environmental regulatory norms to drive growth of smart gas market to these two regions up to 2023.

Although the smart gas market in South and Central America is witnessing sluggish growth, the report says economies in South and Central America will implement the Government of Brazil’s plans to rollout smart gas meters in the next few years to prevent energy theft.

Demand for smart gas meters is expected to increase gradually in future as they offer energy saving which contributes to increase in revenue.

Smart Gas market in Europe
The release of the report follows market analysis carried out by Berg Insight during the Q4 of 2014 that predicts that by 2020 under half of all gas customers in Europe will have a smart meter.

The research forecasted that 40% of households using gas will be metered using advanced technology with the number of installed units reaching 49 million in eight years time.

The increase in smart gas meter penetration from 2% to 40% will mainly be driven by nationwide rollouts in France, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK following positive assessments in their national cost benefits analyses, reported Metering & Smart Energy International.