Worldwide SCADA market for electric utilities expected to grow over five years: ARC

The Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) market is among the most rapidly growing control systems markets in the world. SCADA for electric utilities is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 8.9 percent over the next five years; however, there are numerous strategic initiatives that need to be adopted if SCADA is to be successful in this market, according to a recently released ARC Advisory Group study.

SCADA Systems for Electric Power Industry is a five-year analysis and technology forecast through 2016 that was released in December 2011 by ARC Advisory Group. The report, written by ARC’s Steve Clouther, identifies strategic issues that need to be addressed for SCADA to be successful in this market, including enhancing the SCADA system to deter cyber attacks; getting more involved with distributed SCADA; preparing for energy integration; developing migration roadmap solutions; expanding service capabilities; and establishing a presence in Asia.

The worldwide SCADA market reflects the impact of new technology on SCADA components and cost-effective communications for knowledge transfer. SCADA components are easier to integrate and provide vastly improved capabilities and functionalities, and communications are no longer limited, the report states. End users are using SCADA technology for a range of operational improvement applications and linking these to business processes for a variety of purposes, both internal and external to the enterprise.

The underlying technology that facilitates traditional SCADA functionality has changed dramatically, according to ARC. Emerging technology is enabling SCADA to be tightly integrated to business processes, creating an improved value proposition. SCADA systems bring improved performance to geographically dispersed assets and provide a framework for real-time performance management on a regional, or even global, basis.

Markets in mature and developed regions, including Western Europe and North America, are set to continue expanding over the next few years, says ARC, due to the increasing demand to modernize electric power infrastructures.

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