Telecommunication service providers will evolve to support new business models and the renewable energy sector will see fresh investments under more stringent policy guidelines.

These are some of the latest predictions from IDC Energy Insights in a new report entitled 'Asia/Pacific Utility Industry 2011 Top 10 Predictions'. IDC Energy Insights provides research-based advisory and consulting services focused on market and technology developments in the energy and utility industries.

The research firm predicts that Asia Pacific IT services will experience significant growth in 2011, with a projected 2010-2014 compound annual growth rate of 6.3 per cent.

The report maintains that increased attention to security of information, and improved distribution management and network automation, will drive the utilities industry to spend a major portion of their IT budget on developing and testing applications. This budget will be particularly spent on managing network infrastructure and storage systems, as well as to create capabilities for customer information management, business intelligence and analytics.