European Funds Drive the SCADA Market in the Power and Water and Wastewater Sectors, Notes Frost & Sullivan

LONDON - Major investments in the European electric utility and water and wastewater sectors, supported by high availability of the EU funding, will drive the European supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) market. Government security regulations and compliance requirements also spur the demand for important SCADA solutions. The manufacturers and system integrators planning successful operations in this growing market should focus on ensuring enhanced cyber security and educating end users about cost savings and optimization provided by SCADA.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (http://www.industrialautomation.frost.com), Strategic Analysis of the European SCADA Market, finds that the market earned revenues of $1,325.2 million in 2009 and estimates this to reach $1,902.1 million in 2016. The following end-user sectors are covered in this research: oil and gas, power, water and wastewater and others, including plant-level SCADA (food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and pulp and paper) and automotive and transportation. Software, hardware and services are among the product categories covered in this research.

“Booming economies in Eastern Europe and the stable and growing German market are set to promote heavy capital investments,” notes Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Katarzyna Owczarczyk. “The increase in investments in Western Europe and the North Sea, upstream operations and the greater demand for energy, retrofits, and also the upcoming large gas and oil pipelines are some of the key factors driving the SCADA market in Europe.”

SCADA systems are considered as ideal solutions to provide operational effectiveness and offer good value for money in the capital investments. Apart from the oil and gas, power and water and wastewater sectors, the food and beverage and pharmaceuticals industries are also seeing rapid uptake of SCADA systems.

“By initiating commands through the SCADA system based on tariff information, more efficient use of energy can be supported,” remarks Owczarczyk. “Using historical data collected by the SCADA system and stored in a data warehouse, peaks and troughs in demand can be predicted.” This is particularly important in the city- and country-wide distributed area networks as well as metropolitan area networks.

One of the key challenges faced by manufacturers in the European SCADA market is ensuring enhanced cyber security. “Vendors of SCADA and control products are increasingly addressing these risks by developing lines of specialised industrial firewall and VPN solutions for TCP/IP-based SCADA networks,” notes Owczarczyk. However, the challenge is not only to implement all securities measures, but also to educate plant-level operators and engineers as well as system integrators and other SCADA developers about the benefits and importance of providing security.

The smaller players in this market do not have the capabilities to offer global support or focus on niche products or applications. “Being able to meet the demand for complete solutions offerings, multinational SCADA suppliers are in the best position to grow,” concludes Owczarczyk. “More mergers and acquisitions are likely to be observed in Europe and globally, to help suppliers take a better position, when bidding for major contracts.”

If you are interested in more information about this study, please send an e-mail to Joanna Lewandowska, Corporate Communications, at joanna.lewandowska@frost.com, with your full name, company name, title, telephone number, company e-mail address, company website, city, state and country.

Strategic Analysis of the European SCADA Market is part of the Industrial Automation & Process Control Growth Partnership Services programme, which also includes research in the following markets: World Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition Markets, European SCADA Systems Markets, Strategic Analysis of European SCADA and DCS Markets, among others. All research services included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends that have been evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants.

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