Two-thirds of the electricity customers in the EU27+3 owned a smart meter at the end of the year. The market is poised for steady growth and more than 131 million smart electricity meters are forecasted to be deployed across the region during 2025–2031, according to analyst firm Berg Insights.

At the end of 2025, the EU27+3 region was home to approximately 209 million smart electricity meters, the firm said. Growing at a CAGR of 5.1 percent, the installed base of smart electricity meters is expected to reach a penetration rate of 85 percent by 2031, driven by first-generation projects in countries such as Germany, the UK, Poland, and Greece.

Meanwhile, overall shipment volumes will increase due to a growing number of second-generation rollouts in major markets like Spain, France, and the Netherlands. The smart gas metering market is also set for robust growth in the EU27+3 region, where the installed base of devices is forecasted to increase from nearly 59 million units in 2025 to around 79 million units by 2031, equal to a penetration rate of 48 percent, Berg Insights said.

Shipment dynamics are expected to increasingly reflect a shift in activity away from the Western European markets that have historically led deployments in the region as the European smart electricity metering market continues to mature.

“First-generation smart electricity meters are expected to account for 65 percent of cumulative shipment volumes during the forecast period, supported by large-scale deployments in countries where smart metering penetration remains comparatively low,’’ noted Felix Linderum, a market analyst at Berg Insight. At the same time, first-generation shipments are becoming increasingly concentrated to Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) as well as Southeastern Europe (SEE). By 2031, these two regions will account for 76 percent of the total first-generation shipments in Europe,” Linderum added.

There has also been an ongoing evolution in the European smart metering market in the communications technologies used for data exchange with utility back-office systems. Standalone wireless connectivity options have gained considerable traction in recent years and are expected to account for over 50 percent of annual shipment volumes throughout most of the forecast period, peaking at a share of approximately 62 percent in 2028, according to the firm.

“Most of this growth will be driven by 3GPP-based LPWA technologies. Shipments of LTE-M and NB-IoT electricity meters are forecasted to be in the range of 2.4–6.1 million units during 2025–2031,” Linderum said. Concurrently, powerline communications (PLC) will continue to hold a strong position in the European market, as several major countries preparing for second-generation rollouts have opted to build on their existing communications platforms. “For some of these markets, this may involve upgraded or hybrid PLC-based solutions adapted to new deployment requirements, similar to the case of Italy,” Linderum added.