Drive to upgrade transmission and distribution systems will boost growth, says GlobalData
The global remote terminal units (RTU) market is expected to undergo a slow growth rate in the next seven years, climbing from $0.82 billion in 2013 to $1.43 billion by 2020, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 8.2%, forecasts research and consulting firm GlobalData.
According to the company’s latest report*, this slow increase can be attributed to the mature nature of the RTU market, which consists of the installation of new, and replacement of old, devices. In fact, the size of the global RTU market is expected to increase from 205,400 units in 2013 to 357,433 by 2020.
GlobalData predicts that the global drive to upgrade and expand Transmission and Distribution (T&D) infrastructure will be the major boost behind the RTU market. T&D in the US, Canada and the UK is undergoing a major reform as the aging system has become vulnerable to faults, which is resulting in substantial loss of power.
Ginni Hima Bindu, GlobalData’s Analyst covering Power, says: “In developed countries, such as the US and Canada, RTU installations are expected to be related primarily to the upgradation of SCADA systems. However, in India, Indonesia and Malaysia, where the T&D network is still not fully developed, RTUs are likely to be installed during upgradation, along with the deployment of SCADA systems. In addition to this, Brazil, China and African countries are expected to show significant deployments.”
However, the gradual saturation of the global RTU market will have an adverse effect upon its potential. Nations across the globe, especially in North America and Europe, already have RTUs installed in their T&D systems, which restricts the RTU market to the replacement of installed units and limits any further growth.
