News

Smart Grid is Now the Growth Driver for AC-DC Power

September 30, 2013 by Jeff Shepard

Unlike the slower growth seen over the past several years, the projected 6.0% growth rate for this market is a result of a dynamic combination of trends including the early demise of the large and once dominant desktop power supply market and the rise of a large number of high-growth emerging applications, all related to the rapid growth of the Smart Grid. These trends should provide manufacturers with a host of opportunities over the next several years as the traditional desktop power supply market was made up of just a few standard form factors and wattage ranges, while the emerging applications are expected to be made up of a variety of power levels, form factors, design types and package styles. This is one of several important findings in the Eleventh Edition of Darnell Group’s “AC-DC Power Supplies: Worldwide Forecasts.”

The overall embedded ac-dc power supply market is projected to see considerable growth over the next five years, with the dollar market increasing from $20.0 billion in 2013 to $26.8 billion in 2018, a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.0%. Still dominated by a number of traditional (and very slow-growth or shrinking) applications including communications, computers and industrial, growth will rest on a number of rapidly-growing emerging applications being driven by worldwide growth of the smart grid and related demand for energy efficiency.

Over 80 tables, graphs and figures are presented in this report covering the embedded power supply market for 41 applications. The focus of this comprehensive analysis will be to provide decision makers with a detailed and insightful look at the current and future opportunities available in the embedded power supply market. Darnell Group’s eleventh-edition report on “AC-DC Power Supplies: Worldwide Forecasts” is offered in PDF format and is available for immediate delivery.

The forecasts presented in this edition are based on a detailed quantitative analysis of 41 applications divided among eight categories: Communications, Computers, Industrial, Solid State Lighting, Medical, Mil/Aero, Consumer and Smart Grid. Additional power supply forecasts are generated for merchant/captive production, wattage, package style, packaging by industry and design type. The forecasts and analysis presented in this report consider application drivers, technology trends, regulatory considerations, market sizes and other factors for each segment.

The communications power supply segment is expected to have the largest dollar market over the forecast period. It will be led by applications in the consumer premises equipment sector, which will record the largest individual dollar market covered in this report. However, the segment will see a slight decline in dollar market share over the forecast period to the faster growing industrial and solid state lighting segments.

Solid state lighting (SSL) is projected to have both the fastest growing unit and dollar markets in this report and it is expected to be one of the stronger areas of opportunity for the embedded power supply market. In fact, efficient general purpose lighting is projected to provide one of the more immediate opportunities over the next several years.

Power supplies for smart grid applications which include smart meters, electric vehicle charges and smart appliances are projected to make up the fastest growing unit market. The largest area of concentration is expected to be in the area of consumer energy consumption, specifically the smart meter market. Although the smart grid segment is currently captive, a number of factors are expected to come into play that should provide opportunities for merchant power supply manufacturers.

In contrast to the last edition which included a number of major application additions and subtractions, the only new modification is the addition of an emerging vs. traditional application forecast section presented towards the end of the report. In one of the more interesting findings, the three emerging application segments – Smart Grid, Solid State Lighting (SSL) and Building Automation are projected to continue growing over three times as fast as the traditional applications, which include the communications, computers, industrial, medical, mil/aero and consumer sectors. Details are available at, “AC-DC Power Supplies: Worldwide Forecasts.”