Asia’s Smart Metering Surge

The global electricity metering landscape is undergoing a fundamental shift. What were once simple billing devices have evolved into intelligent, connected sensors at the edge of the grid. Today’s smart meters are crucial for enabling real-time grid visibility, predictive maintenance, and the continued integration of renewable energy sources.

Saft research suggests that an estimated 72% of all electricity meters shipped globally in 2024 were communicating devices, a figure expected to continue rising to 83% by 2031.

Utilities are pursuing digitalization, reducing costs that come with manual meter reading, and responding to energy transition policies that demand more flexible, resilient grids.

Nowhere is this transformation more dynamic than in Asia.

The global engine of smart metering

Asia & Oceania accounts for the largest installed base globally and continues to scale rapidly, with the region expected to approach one billion installed smart meters by the second half of the decade, underlining its dominant position in the global market. However, the underlying reasons for the market surge differ by country.

China dominates the landscape driven by state-led, nationwide smart grid programs led by companies including Ningbo Water Meter and Suntront. The country has already completed its first wave of smart meter rollouts and is now entering large-scale replacement cycles, in part due to relatively short device lifetimes (around 8 years) compared to other regions.

India represents another major growth engine. Its national rollout of around 250 million smart meters is one of the largest globally, supported by government initiatives and funding schemes such as AMRUT 2.0. The country is widely regarded as the fastest-growing smart metering market in Asia-Pacific through 2030, reflecting both infrastructure modernization needs and rapid digital adoption.

Meanwhile, more mature markets such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and parts of Oceania are entering second-generation Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) cycles. These markets have largely completed their initial rollouts and are now focused on upgrading capabilities, improving data granularity, and enhancing reliability

Southeast Asia (including Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines) is also seeing strong growth, with large-scale projects emerging as part of broader smart city and energy modernization initiatives.

Connectivity choices: from wires to wireless

Regional preferences for smart meter connectivity choices vary significantly.

Wired technologies - particularly Power Line Communication (PLC) – has historically dominated deployments in countries such as China and South Korea due to their effectiveness in dense urban environments. PLC enables data transmission over existing electrical infrastructure, using low- and medium-voltage power lines to connect smart meters with utility data concentrators.

Saft research estimates that 68% of communicating meter shipments in 2023 used PLC and other wired communication technologies.

This is starting to change though, with the region moving from infrastructure-based communication to more flexible and scalable wireless solutions. RF (Radio Frequency) mesh networks have been widely adopted in markets like Japan, while cellular LPWA (lowpower wide-area) technologies are gaining traction elsewhere.

In China in particular, Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) is emerging as a cornerstone technology for smart metering.

NB-IoT is a LPWA cellular technology designed specifically for IoT applications requiring long battery life, deep coverage, and the ability to connect massive numbers of devices. It operates within existing cellular networks, allowing utilities to leverage established infrastructure rather than building dedicated communication systems.

Its advantages are particularly relevant for smart metering:

• Extended battery life through power-saving features
• Strong indoor and underground penetration
• High scalability for national deployments
• Reliable and secure data transmission

These characteristics have made NB-IoT especially attractive in large-scale markets. Asia-Pacific already leads the global NB-IoT smart meter market, accounting for a significant share of deployments, driven largely by China’s nationwide programs and expanding use across Japan, South Korea, and India.

As utilities in Asia increasingly prioritize long-term operational efficiency and coverage in hard-to-reach locations, NB-IoT is rapidly becoming a preferred connectivity option.

What this means for batteries

The evolution toward more advanced connectivity - particularly NB-IoT - introduces new power demands. Smart meters must now support frequent communication, firmware updates, and real-time data exchange, all while maintaining longer operational lifetimes. These factors place significant stress on both electronic systems and energy storage components.

Deploying smart meters across Asia also brings an added challenge of operating in some diverse and demanding environmental conditions, with many deployments needed to withstand the elements (high humidity, extreme heat, extreme cold, even seismic activity) in hard-to-access locations that make maintenance both costly and logistically complex.

To meet these demands, batteries must deliver high pulse capability for regular wireless communication bursts and sustain this performance over 10+ years, with low self-discharge and proven reliability.

Primary lithium batteries are ideal for this. High energy density enables long service life, while advanced chemistries can deliver the pulse performance required for NB-IoT.

Saft’s Li-SOCl2 (Lithium Thionyl Chloride) range are well-suited for these deployments, with LS cells (LS 14250/LS 14500/ LS 17330/ LS 17500) a popular choice, and LSH cells designed specifically for reliable operation in extreme climates.

Asia’s leadership in smart metering is reshaping the global energy landscape. From China’s large-scale deployments and rapid replacement cycles to India’s accelerating rollout and Southeast Asia’s emerging opportunities, the region is driving both scale and innovation.

This transformation will need reliable power.

As connectivity technologies like NB-IoT continue to expand, and as environmental and operational demands increase, the role of the battery becomes ever more central. Long-life, high-performance energy solutions are not just supporting smart metering infrastructure. They are energizing it.

To explore which batteries are right for your metering project, our IoT Smart Selector can help you refine your battery choices in seven simple steps.