# State of the Art and Trends Review of _Smart Metering_ in Electricity Grids
## 4 Development of _Smart Metering_ Worldwide
### Europe  
Despite its relatively low starting point, _Smart Metering_ deployments are currently especially successful in Europe, largely due to the legislation of many countries promoting, or even forcing, the replacement of old metering devices with _SM_s. In fact, legislation for electricity _SM_s is in place in the majority of the member states of the European Union, providing a legal framework for deployment and/or regulating specific matters such as a timeline of the rollout or setting technical specifications for the meters [51]. According to the European Commission, member states have committed to deploy 200 million _SM_s by 2020 (Electric Directive 2009/72/EC). This implies that more than 70% of end-users will be covered by Smart Grid technology [52]. Figure 4 shows the evolution of _SM_ rollouts in European countries. In 2013, the total number of installed _SM_s was estimated at 61 million [53]. Figure 5 depicts an estimation of the total number of installed _SM_s in Europe by 2020. By mid-2012, there were about 90 _Smart Metering_ pilot projects and national rollouts catalogued in Europe, the most important of which are listed below. Figure 4: _SM_ rollout status in Europe by country (Source: European Commission [52]). Reprinted with the permission of the European Commission, “Cost-benefit analyses & state of play of _Smart Metering_ deployment in the EU-27”, published by the European Commission, 2014. © European Union, 1998–2016. Italy was one of the forerunners of _Smart Metering_ in Europe, as the utility ENEL started deploying _SM_s in 2001 under the scope of the \"_Telegestore_\" project, which employs a combination of _PLC_ (for communication between _SM_s and substations) and _GSM_ (data gathering of _CCs_ in the backbone). By the end of 2013 its rollout was almost complete (95% of costumers). It is also worth mentioning the \"_Insernia_\" project, with approximately 8000 installed _SM_s implementing _PLC_, which offers a new approach to demand response and aims at promoting distributed generation [54]. Also by 2013, Sweden was the only member state whose rollout was completed. However, there was no legal decision on the rollout of _SM_s itself; on the contrary, a legal decision was made to make monthly meter reading available to customers, which in turn led to a decision by distribution companies to roll out _SM_s in order to meet this requirement [50]. Sweden was a member of the \"_EnergyWatch_\" project together with Finland, whose purpose was to help utility consumers to gain awareness, change behavior, and reduce energy consumption and bills [54]. In the Netherlands, from 2012 until 2014 there was a small-scale rollout for experienced purposes. The Dutch parliament evaluated this pilot project and approved additional implementing regulation for the large-scale rollout of _SM_s from 2015, aiming to have an _SM_ fitted in at least 80% of households and small businesses by 2020 [54]. Additionally, the utility Continuon started in 2006 a pilot project with the installation of 50,000 _SM_s implementing _PLC_ technology, for both electricity and gas metering, while the company Oxxio started a similar project with _SM_s implementing _GSM/GPRS_[56]. The United Kingdom took its first steps towards _Smart Metering_ in 2007 with the project \"_Energy Demand Research Project_\" (_EDRP_), with around 58,000 installed _SM_s, showing that the combination of an _SM_ and in-home display made a real difference to the level of energy savings that people were able to make [57]. Later, in 2011, the U.K. government announced a mandate consisting on a full rollout of _SM_s by 2014 and running through 2019 to install 53 million _SM_s in  
Figure 5: Estimation of the total number of _SM_s installed in Europe by 2020 (Source: Accenture [55]). Reprinted with the permission of Accenture, “Realizing the Full Potential of _Smart Metering_”, published by Accenture, 2015. 30 million homes and businesses.