Government to Invest in First Phase of Smart Grid, 10 to 20 Billion Baht, Highlighting Five Stock Groups Set to Benefit

PPL Electric Utilities has been selected to receive up to $71.5 million in federal funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to support the Montour Grid Resilience and Advanced Reconductoring Project, a modernization of an existing 230-kilovolt transmission corridor. The funding comes through the DOE's Speed to Power through Accelerated Reconductoring and other Key Advanced Transmission Technology Upgrades (SPARK) Program. The project will rebuild approximately 29.3 miles of existing transmission line, replacing aging infrastructure with advanced technologies to strengthen reliability, enhance available capacity and support growing energy needs in the Susquehanna Valley, Greater Lehigh Valley and Northeast Pennsylvania. It will deploy advanced conductors, using a combination of Aluminum Conductor Steel Supported (ACSS) and Aluminum Conductor Composite Core (ACCC) conductors on targeted segments, along with dual optical ground wire to expand the corridor's fiber network and demonstrate Distributed Acoustic Sensing technology. PPL Electric Utilities President Christine Martin said the funding will help the company modernize critical infrastructure and minimize costs for customers, while U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said the investments will get more out of existing infrastructure and deliver affordable, reliable power. Over the coming months, PPL Electric will work with the DOE to negotiate and finalize the terms of the award.

Camus Energy has joined the newly formed AI Energy Management Alliance as a launch partner, alongside technology industry leaders including Google and NVIDIA. The alliance is a first-of-its-kind coalition dedicated to advancing flexible AI data centers that dynamically adjust their power draw to provide relief during periods of peak grid stress. Camus will help guide AEMA's mission to align data center expansion with grid reliability through flexible interconnection and intelligent energy management, and will help shape technical standards, market definitions, and public policy for integrating large-scale data center loads into the grid. The company's FlexConnect software enables data centers to connect to the grid up to five years faster using flexible operating limits and existing infrastructure, bypassing multiyear grid expansion plans and customer rate increases. Camus Energy provides grid management and orchestration software to major hyperscalers and U.S. utility partners that reach seven million utility customers, and was founded and led by distributed computing experts from Google and Amazon.

The global smart meter market is projected to grow from USD 31.60 billion in 2026 to USD 50.82 billion by 2031, registering a 10.0% compound annual growth rate, according to a new report added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Growth is being driven by government programs addressing future electricity demand, carbon reduction targets, renewable energy integration, grid modernization, and improved utility resource management. Residential is expected to be the fastest-growing end-user segment, while hardware is expected to retain the larger share of the component split between hardware and software. Europe is expected to become the world's second-largest regional market, led by France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK, with the European Green Deal and Fit for 55 initiative accelerating grid modernization. The report profiles key players including Landis+Gyr of Switzerland, Itron Inc. of the US, Sagemcom of France, Schneider Electric of France, OSAKI Electric Co., Ltd. of Japan, and Siemens of Germany, and cites recent developments such as Siemens' March 2025 partnership with CPFL Energia to modernize approximately 1.6 million residential smart meters in Sao Paulo by 2029.