Siemens aims for 1/5 of world smart grids business

BALLERUP, Denmark Feb 8 (Reuters) - Germany's Siemens (SIEGn.DE) sees the world market for intelligent electricity networks roughly doubling to more than 30 billion euros ($40.98 billion) by 2014 and aims to take a fifth of that market.

A senior executive of the German engineering conglomerate said on Monday that intelligent electricity networks, also known as "smart grids", combine power distribution with information and communications technology, such as electric metering and billing systems, energy management and grid status monitoring.

These grids are seen as important in the future to integrate expected growing volumes of electricity from renewable energy resources, such as wind and solar power, into existing power networks.

Leif Getreuer, executive vice president at the group's Danish subsidiary Siemens A/S, gave the forecast in a briefing for journalists on Monday and said the Danish unit would play a big role.

Siemens had revenues of about 1 billion euros from the smart grids business in 2009.

"We aim to grow faster than the market, as one always does," Getreuer told Reuters.

"We have several (smart grid) development projects where we are involved," he said of the Danish unit where he is head of the energy business.

As one example, he mentioned a project to test electric cars' influence on the power grid and to develop standards and a tested system related to an increase in electric automobiles.

Getreuer said Denmark -- the world leader in wind power with about a fifth of its electricity production from wind -- is a test country for smart grids because of the high share of its power supply coming from renewable resources.

"Denmark is a test market because we are already above the 20 percent level in renewables in the grid that other countries are aiming for," he said. "So we can test in real life what other countries are aiming for." (Reporting by John Acher; Editing by Amanda Cooper)