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Greentech Media is out with its model for global smartgrid analytics spending, concluding that spending should reach an annual level of $3.8 billion in 2020, with a cumulative spend totaling $20.6 billion.

I’ve been watching the data analytics end of the smartgrid for some time, mostly because it’s the area within the smartgrid with significant potential for growth. While hardware deployment of smart meters and networking equipment is a key part of current spending, the analysis and monetization of all of the smart meter data has built in scalable growth. We currently don’t even yet know the full potential for how that data can be used to lower energy use, save utilities money, and even sell products down the line.

For the time being, there’s the implementation of data management and storage, which are prerequisites for the smartgrid since utilities have to figure out the basics of managing the data influx. But as time goes on, we know that companies like Opower and smart thermostat maker Nest will want to run more and more analytics on smart meter data so that they can optimize their products.