There will be 7.5 million smart meters installed in Japan, including replacement of conventional electric meters, in 2015, hiking 104.9% on year, according to Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and industry (METI).
Japan will liberalize its power market starting April 2016, allowing users to choose their power suppliers and differential rates, and power suppliers have been boosting installation of smart meters, Digitimes Research indicated.
According to 10 power suppliers' schedules of smart meter installation, Tokyo Electric Power will complete installation of smart meters for all of its users the earliest by 2020. On the whole, completion of smart meter installation for low-voltage power users (households, small stores, etc.) is scheduled for 2016 and high-voltage ones (factories, large facilities, etc.) by 2024.
Use of HEMS (home energy management system) devices is increasing along with installation of smart meters. HEMS device users can browse about power consumption for every HEMS-supporting electric home-use appliance based on smartphones, tablets and other types of hand-held devices. According to Fuji-Keizai forecast, the cumulative number of HEMS device users will grow from 260,000 in 2014 to 1.6 million in 2020.
