"There is demand in the region for Advanced Metering Infrastructure technology, as part of a smart grid solution, although the pace of adoption for smart metering solutions is very slow in comparison to other regions such as North America, Europe and Asia. We expect this demand to increase exponentially in the future as the adoption of Smart Grids becomes a higher priority across the industry," says Abdelrahman Abdellatif, principal consultant, Energy Solutions, at Huawei Enterprise ME. By contrast, Muness Charara, director, energy sales and marketing ME, Itron, suggests that, "Smart metering and the smart grid are rapidly growing and evolving in the Middle East. It is one of the fastest growing regions in the world and the demand for smart meters for new developments and meter replacement is on the rise. We view this as a tremendous growth opportunity."