The United States Advanced Meter Infrastructure Market

Increasing Significance of Power Quality and Usage of Non-linear Loads Drives the Harmonic Filter Market

The higher awareness of the ill effects of harmonic disturbances in electrical networks and the importance of achieving acceptable levels of power quality are expected to give a huge boost to the harmonic filters market. All stakeholders in industrial and commercial ecosystems, electrical contractors and consultants, engineers, and end users have begun to acknowledge harmonics as a vital issue related to power quality, which needs to be resolved urgently. An increase in non-linear loads in industrial and commercial establishments such as paper, steel manufacturing plants, textile mills, and petrochemical plants leads to harmonic distortions in electrical networks, which creates demand for harmonic-mitigation products such as harmonic filters. "Issues in the power supplied to mission-critical equipment may hinder the smooth functioning, or in the worst case, even damage the devices," says the analyst of this research. "Often, the providers of such devices provide certain compliance levels for the quality of power made available to them, which has contributed to the growth in the overall awareness of power quality and the necessity of harmonic filtering solutions."

Poor quality power also results in losses during transmission and distribution, which sometimes violate the energy efficiency norms stipulated by federal and state regulations. This puts pressure on utilities to ensure improved power quality to all customers, resulting in higher demand for harmonic filters. "Utilities impose penalties on companies that generate harmonic distortion beyond certain acceptable levels," notes the analyst. "This compels these customer companies to install harmonic filtering solutions in their facilities to avoid penalties." Despite these adoption drivers, customers are still not convinced about the justification of ROI on harmonic filters, due to their high costs. Harmonic filter suppliers have not reduced prices considerably, which contribute to customers' hesitation in making this purchase.

Harmonic filter companies can look to overcome some of these hurdles by taking advantage of prospects in emerging markets. Major participants are well poised to cash in on opportunities from such sources and other companies are expected to follow suit. "Going forward, the demand for electrical power quality in emerging economies may be more, in proportion to the increase in industrial and commercial activities those regions," observes the analyst. "Demand for harmonic filters in these economies will also grow in tandem."

Market Sectors

Expert Frost & Sullivan analysts thoroughly examine the following market sectors in this research:

• Low-voltage harmonic filters
• Medium-voltage harmonic filters
• High-voltage harmonic filters

Technologies

The following technologies are covered in this research:

• Active harmonic filters
• Passive harmonic filters