Big smart meter maker Elster Group has announced a new CEO – Simon Berensford-Wylie, the former CEO of Nokia Siemens Networks.

Perhaps the move will lead to new partnerships between the two companies. German company Elster has been seeing rapid growth in smart meter deployments, along with its big rivals Itron, Landis+Gyr, General Electric and Sensus, and also makes gear to manage other parts of the so-called "smart grid" (see Green Light post).

Elster has deployed six million smart meters and other devices around the world, and reported revenues of €1.3 billion ($1.9 billion) in 2008, compared to 2008 revenues of $1.25 billion for its main smart metering rival in Europe, Swiss-based Landis+Gyr (see Landis+Gyr Raises $100M).

Nokia Siemens Networks, on the other hand, has been ailing of late. The joint venture of Nokia and Siemens announced earlier this month that it would seek to lay off about 5, 670 employees in a second round of job cuts amidst tough price competition in the global networking market (see Bloomberg).

But smart grid communications – such as networks that link smart meters with utilities – are seen as a growth area for telecommunications and networking giants the world over.

The $3.4 billion in smart grid stimulus grants given out by the Department of Energy last month is expected to lead to 18 million smart meters installed in the next three years (see DOE's $3.4B Smart Grid Grant Program: The Winners).

And the European Union has set a 2022 deadline for every electrical meter to have some kind of two-way communications and control capability (see Green Light post).

A number of executives from utility, networking and energy giants have taken executive positions in smart grid startups such as Silver Spring Networks, Trilliant and GridPoint in recent months (see Green Light post).