AMI Smart Grid Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Small, concentrated field. just 11 published patent families sit inside this search, so a handful of filings sets the entire competitive picture.
- Filing activity peaked in 2022 at 6 records and has not been matched since, pointing to a filing wave that has already crested rather than one still building.
- H02J power-and-grid claims dominate the IPC mix (8 of the records), while AI-based analytics (G06N) and communications (H04L) each account for just one — a thin layer over a grid-hardware-heavy field.
What the AMI smart grid patent record actually shows
Advanced Metering Infrastructure sits at the intersection of grid hardware and data analytics: smart meters, distribution monitoring and the demand-side data pipelines that feed grid operators. The search behind this page combines meter-and-AMI terminology in the title with grid-integration and analytics language in the claims, filtered to the G01R22/06, H02J13 and G06Q50/06 IPC classes that cover metering measurement, power-line communication and utility-data services. Against that filter the published record is small: 11 patent families in total, spread across five receiving offices.
That scale matters for how the rest of this page should be read. With only 11 families, single filings move percentages significantly, and the absence of a document in a given year says as much about filing behaviour as its presence does. Publication typically lags filing by around eighteen months, so any apparent slowdown in the most recent year is partly an artefact of that lag rather than a confirmed drop in activity.
Filing trend and technology composition
The dataset covers published records from 2015 through the mid-2026 cut-off, tagged against IPC subclasses that separate metering hardware, control systems, analytics and communications.
A short filing wave that peaked in 2022
Filings were flat at zero through 2017, then built to a peak of 6 records in 2022 before tapering. With the midpoint year matching the peak, growth across the window reads as flat-to-declining rather than accelerating — this looks like a completed filing cycle rather than an emerging one, though the 18-month publication lag means the final one to two years are still filling in.
Grid hardware outweighs analytics and communications
H02J (power supply and grid systems) appears in 8 of the 11 records, with G01D and G01R measurement classes each present in 6 — meters and the grid infrastructure around them dominate the claim language. G05B control systems appear twice, while G06N (AI-based computing) and H04L (digital transmission) each appear only once, showing that data-analytics and communications claims remain a thin overlay on a field still defined by metering hardware.
Shares are the percentage of the 11 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Advanced Metering Infrastructure Smart Grid with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about advanced metering infrastructure smart grid and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited record in this corpus
US20220416571A1 — Electrical grid monitoring using aggregated smart meter data
This record, cited 3 times within the corpus, claims methods for monitoring electrical grid conditions by aggregating data collected across smart meters. It sits squarely in the analytics-over-metering-data space that the IPC composition shows is thinly claimed relative to hardware.Citation counts here are drawn from a small, topic-filtered corpus and should be read as relative influence within this dataset, not as an industry-wide importance score.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20220416571A1 | Electrical grid monitoring using aggregated smart meter data | 3 |
Ranked by citation count within this searched corpus; older filings accumulate citations by virtue of age, so treat this as a signal of influence rather than current relevance.
Publication numbers are shown where the record carries one (1 of 1 rows); clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three patterns stand out once the filing trend, IPC mix and citation data are read together.
A filing wave that has already crested
Activity rose to 6 records in 2022, matching the dataset's midpoint, and has not exceeded that level since. Combined with the 18-month publication lag, the most recent years likely understate true activity, but the shape so far is a completed cycle rather than a build-up.
Hardware and grid-integration claims dominate
H02J appears in the majority of records, with measurement classes G01D and G01R close behind. Analytics (G06N) and communications (H04L) each appear only once, meaning the data-processing layer of AMI — where value increasingly sits — remains lightly claimed relative to the meter and grid hardware around it.
Filing is concentrated in a few offices
The United States and Australia together account for 7 of the 11 records, with Europe, India and a single PCT filing making up the rest. A field this size filed across five offices signals no single dominant jurisdiction has locked down protection everywhere.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to advanced metering infrastructure smart grid, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| ER R NARAYANASWAMY | DR R CHITRA | 1 |
Only one co-assignee pairing appears in the dataset, between ER R Narayanaswamy and Dr R Chitra, suggesting most work here has been filed by single assignees rather than through joint development arrangements.
Who is filing, and where momentum has gone quiet
With 11 families spread across a mix of corporate and individual assignees, no single filer has built a dominant position. Recent-year momentum data shows every tracked assignee, including NGK Insulators and the Sacramento municipal utility, at zero filings in the latest year — consistent with the filing trend's post-2022 taper.
Every tracked filer has gone quiet
Each of the named assignees in the momentum data — including NGK Insulators and California's Sacramento utility department — shows zero filings in the most recent year, with one entrant down -100% year-on-year. This lines up with the broader trend taper rather than pointing to any one company retreating specifically.
Individually filed, largely
The single identified co-assignee pair, ER R Narayanaswamy and Dr R Chitra, is the only joint-filing relationship in the corpus. The remaining families appear to be single-assignee filings, including corporate entrants like NGK Insulators.
No single office holds the field
Filings span the United States, Australia, Europe, India and one PCT application, without a clear concentration in any one jurisdiction beyond the US and Australia's combined share.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| X Development LLC | 0 | -100% |
| NGK Insulators, Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) | 0 | — |
| ER R NARAYANASWAMY | 0 | — |
| DR R CHITRA | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The filing and IPC data point to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, white-space filing or competitive monitoring.
Map the analytics overlay in detail
With G06N and H04L each appearing only once against 8 H02J records, a closer read of exactly what those two records claim would clarify how much of the smart-meter-data-analytics space is genuinely open.
Explore analytics claims in EurekaTrack the post-2022 taper for real signal
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, confirming whether the 2022 peak was a true ceiling or an artefact of incomplete recent-year data requires revisiting this trend once later filings publish.
Set up filing alerts in EurekaCheck freedom-to-operate against the most-cited record
US20220416571A1's claims on aggregated smart-meter-data grid monitoring are the most-cited in this corpus and worth a direct claim-chart comparison for any analytics-layer product.
Run a claim comparison in EurekaCommon questions about AMI smart grid patents
Within the specific search parameters used for this landscape — combining AMI and smart-meter terminology with grid-integration and analytics language, filtered to metering, power-grid and utility-data IPC classes — there are 11 published patent families. This is a narrow, topic-filtered count, not a count of every patent that touches metering or smart grids broadly. Broader searches using different keyword or classification combinations would return a different, likely larger, number.
Based on this dataset, filing activity built up to a peak of 6 records in 2022 and has not exceeded that level since, which reads as a flat-to-declining trend rather than continued growth. That said, patent publication typically lags actual filing by around 18 months, so the most recent one to two years in any filing trend are understated until later data catches up. A firmer read on whether the field is genuinely slowing would need another year or two of publications to confirm.
The dataset includes assignees such as NGK Insulators and California's Sacramento municipal utility department alongside individual filers, but with only 11 families total, no single assignee holds a dominant share. Recent-year momentum data shows every tracked assignee at zero filings in the latest year, meaning current leadership in this space is thin and unsettled rather than concentrated behind one clear leader. Anyone tracking this space should watch for new entrants rather than assume the existing named assignees will continue filing at prior levels.
The IPC composition shows power-supply and grid-system claims (H02J) present in 8 of 11 records, while AI-based analytics (G06N) and digital communications (H04L) each appear in only one. That gap suggests the data-processing and communications layers built on top of metering hardware — such as meter-to-grid protocols and AI-driven demand-side analytics — carry comparatively light claim density relative to the underlying hardware and measurement claims. Any first-mover advantage in this field is more likely to be available in that analytics-and-communications overlay than in core metering hardware.
US20240248122A1, assigned to NGK Insulators, describes a communication apparatus built into a smart meter that uses a secondary lithium-ion battery to keep transmitting an alarm signal even when external power to the meter is cut off. It matters to this landscape because it sits at the boundary of two thinly overlapping classes in this dataset — metering hardware and communications — and represents one of the few records combining battery backup with meter-level wireless alerting. Anyone designing meter communication hardware with backup power should review its claims directly rather than relying on this summary.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.