Smart Grid Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
- Filing peaked in 2021 at 1,184 records, then fell 41% to 699 by 2024 — the last year publication lag lets you read as complete.
- The ranked leaders are far from dominant: the top 5 assignees hold just 14.2% of all 26,948 records, and the top 10 only 21.1%.
- Power supply and grid systems (H02J) touch 27.6% of records but digital transmission, business-process and control classes each carry double-digit or near double-digit shares alongside it — this is a software-and-controls fight as much as a hardware one.
Filing growth compares 2021 (1,184 records) with 2024 (699) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 26,948 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
A crowded, fragmented field built on software as much as hardware
The search covers 26,948 published records filed against smart grid, electric power system and grid electrification terms, cross-referenced against power generation, distribution automation, demand response, HVDC, vehicle-to-grid and power system cybersecurity. Filing activity is spread across a wide base rather than concentrated in a handful of specialists: the ranked leaders — the 100 companies the assignee ranking returns — collectively hold a meaningful share, but no single company dominates the field the way concentration patterns often look in narrower hardware categories.
IPC composition confirms this is a hybrid field. Power supply and grid systems (H02J) is the largest single class, but digital information transmission, business-process data handling and control systems each appear on a substantial share of records too, meaning much of the claim activity sits at the intersection of grid hardware and the software layers that manage it.
Filing trends and technology composition
Filing volumes and IPC composition for the 26,948 records in scope, drawn directly from the underlying dataset.
Filing trend: rise, peak, pullback
Filings climbed from 1,004 in 2017 to a peak of 1,184 in 2021, then declined to 699 by 2024 — a 41% drop over that three-year span. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in and should not be read as a continued decline; 2024 is the most recent year that can be treated as complete.
Where the claims sit
H02J (power supply and grid systems) leads at 27.6% of records, followed by H04L (digital information transmission) at 10.7% and G06Q (business, commerce and admin data processing) at 10.1%. G06F, G05B, H04W, H01M and B60L each sit between roughly 6% and 9%, confirming that control logic, wireless communication and vehicle propulsion claims are filed alongside core grid hardware rather than in isolation. Records can carry multiple classes, so these shares sum to well over 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 26,948 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Smart Grid, Power Systems & Electrification Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about smart grid, power systems & electrification patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative filing and most-cited records
Smart meter system and method for managing demand response in a smart grid
A smart meter system for managing demand-side electrical transactions with shifted demand in a smart grid. The controller applies non-cooperative game theoretic analysis to multi-periodic shifted demand, addressing user-based electricity demand, production, storage and sales of energy to providers, and operates within Home-Area-Network or Wide-Area-Network demand response management.Filed by King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, published 2020-07-02 as US20200212675A1.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20170006135A1 | Systems, methods, and devices for an enterprise internet-of-things application development platform | 1,906 |
| 2 | US20170331670A1 | Network Architecture, Methods, and Devices for a Wireless Communications Network | 1,308 |
| 3 | US20170331577A1 | Network Architecture, Methods, and Devices for a Wireless Communications Network | 1,172 |
| 4 | US20170232300A1 | Smart device | 1,052 |
| 5 | US9026347B2 | Smart electric vehicle (EV) charging and grid integration apparatus and methods | 1,039 |
| 6 | US20100332373A1 | System and method for participation in energy-related markets | 1,024 |
| 7 | US20100277121A1 | Wireless energy transfer between a source and a vehicle | 1,008 |
| 8 | US9614258B2 | Power storage device and power storage system | 1,006 |
| 9 | US20100327766A1 | Wireless emergency lighting system | 996 |
| 10 | US20190339688A1 | Methods and systems for data collection, learning, and streaming of machine signals for analytics and mainten… | 974 |
Citation counts reflect a corpus favouring older filings; treat them as a signal of influence within this dataset, not of current technical importance.
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Three patterns stand out once volume, composition and momentum are read together.
No single company controls the field
The top 5 assignees combined hold 14.2% of all records in scope, and the top 10 only reach 21.1%. That leaves the large majority of filings distributed across the remaining ranked leaders and a long tail beyond them — a structure that rewards a well-targeted claim more than it punishes a late entrant.
Post-peak pullback, not a shrinking field
Filings fell from 1,184 in 2021 to 699 in 2024, a 41% decline. Several of the most active historical filers show flat or falling recent-year output, which is consistent with a maturing wave of core grid-control filings rather than the technology losing relevance.
Grid hardware and software claims overlap
H02J anchors the field at 27.6% of records, but H04L, G06Q, G06F and G05B each carry a substantial share too. Filers pairing core grid-control claims with data-transmission or business-logic claims are competing on a different axis than pure hardware players.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to smart grid, power systems & electrification patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where activity is cooling
Recent-year momentum diverges sharply from historical filing volume. Several large historical filers show little or no activity in the latest year, while the overall base of filers remains wide.
Scale without lock-up
The leading assignee holds 1,228 records, well ahead of fifth place at 595 and tenth place at 268 — a clear gradient rather than a plateau, meaning the gap between the top filer and the rest is real but not a barrier to entry lower down the ranking.
Historical leaders are pulling back
Multiple assignees with large historical filing counts show sharp year-over-year declines in the latest year, including several dropping to zero. This pattern is consistent with completed filing waves around earlier smart-meter and grid-control programmes rather than exit from the field.
Filing is mostly solo
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear across the dataset, and the strongest of these link a parent company to its own energy-systems and infrastructure-systems subsidiaries rather than external partners — cross-company joint filing is rare in this field.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America | 10 | -68% |
| General Electric Co | 1 | — |
| Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd. | 1 | -75% |
| Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Hitachi, Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| Toshiba Corporation | 0 | — |
| Toyota Motor Corporation | 0 | -100% |
| Sony Group Corporation | 0 | — |
Where to take this next
The dataset points to three practical next steps depending on what you are trying to decide.
Check freedom-to-operate around the leader's core claims
With the top filer holding 1,228 records and clear gaps down to fifth and tenth place, a targeted search around the leader's specific claim language is more useful than a broad landscape read.
Run a freedom-to-operate check in EurekaTrack momentum, not just historical volume
Several large historical filers show sharp recent-year declines. Before assuming a company is active in a sub-area, check its latest-year filing count rather than its cumulative total.
Set up assignee monitoring in EurekaProbe the under-claimed branches directly
Vehicle-to-grid protocols, grid-forming inverter control and power system cybersecurity show activity but thinner claim density than the core H02J classes — worth a focused search before drafting.
Explore white space in EurekaCommon questions about this patent landscape
No single company controls the field: the top 5 assignees combined hold only 14.2% of the 26,948 records in scope, and the top 10 reach 21.1%. The single largest filer holds 1,228 records, well ahead of the fifth-place filer at 595 and tenth place at 268, so there is a real gradient at the top but a wide base of activity beneath it. This spread means competitive monitoring needs to cover more than the two or three obvious names.
Filing rose from 1,004 records in 2017 to a peak of 1,184 in 2021, then fell to 699 by 2024, a 41% decline over that span. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures in any dataset are still incomplete and should not be read as continued decline. Treat 2024 as the most recent year that reflects true filing activity.
Power supply and grid systems (IPC class H02J) is the largest single category at 27.6% of the 26,948 records, but it does not stand alone. Digital information transmission (H04L, 10.7%), business and commerce data processing (G06Q, 10.1%), general digital data processing (G06F, 8.9%) and control systems (G05B, 7.8%) all appear on a substantial share of the same records, showing that most filings combine grid hardware with software or communications claims rather than treating them separately.
Based on filing density relative to activity, vehicle-to-grid bidirectional charging protocols, grid-forming inverter control for inverter-dominated grids, power system cybersecurity for distribution automation, demand-response game-theoretic pricing and HVDC fault-ride-through schemes show thinner claim coverage than the core H02J grid-control classes. These are areas where a well-drafted first claim has more room to stand than in the densely filed core categories.
Filing is overwhelmingly solo in this dataset: only 10 co-assignee pairs appear across all 26,948 records. The strongest pairs link a parent company to its own subsidiaries — an energy-systems arm or an infrastructure-systems arm — rather than connecting unrelated companies, so cross-company joint filing is rare and internal corporate structuring accounts for most of the collaboration that does show up.
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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.