The Federal Communications Commission’s inquiry into the role communications technologies will play in developing a nationwide smart grid utilities network will take a close look at whether new spectrum is needed for developing smart- grid applications.
The initiative could pit the utilities industry, which is on the record as wanting its own spectrum at 1.8 GHz, against commercial wireless carriers, which traditionally have been reluctant to encourage other entities to gain access to spectrum, especially without auctioning that spectrum. Further, commercial wireless carriers maintain many smart-grid applications can be deployed using their existing spectrum. As such, it is likely a mix of wired and wireless and private and public communications networks will be used to develop smart-grid applications.
Canada has set aside 30 megahertz at 1.8 GHz for utilities and the utilities industry would like the same to the networks could be harmonized. Proponents point to the largest power blackout in North America that took place in August 2003, impacting an estimated 50 million people across the Eastern and Midwest United States and Ontario.
As part of the agency’s mandate to develop a national broadband plan, the FCC earlier this summer issued a Notice of Inquiry about how smart-grid applications could advance the nation’s energy independence. Now the FCC is specifically asking which private and public networks and technologies are best suited to be used for smart-grid applications, with an eye toward the bandwidth, latency, reliability and coverage requirements for various smart-grid applications. The FCC is also seeking comment on the costs and benefits of existing smart-grid deployments, and whether existing commercial communications networks are adequate. “How reliable are commercial wireless networks for carrying Smart Grid data (both in last-mile and backhaul applications)? Are commercial wireless networks suitable for critical electricity equipment control communications? How reliably can commercial wireless networks transmit Smart Grid data during and after emergency events? What could be done to make commercial wireless networks more reliable for Smart Grid applications during such events?”
The commission also wants to know how many areas of the nation have no access to “suitable” communications networks and whether or how that would impede smart-grid implementation, not only at the network level, but at individual homes. “Electric utilities offer near universal service, including in many geographies where no existing suitable communications networks currently exist (for last-mile, aggregation point data backhaul, and utility control systems). We seek to better understand the availability of existing communications networks, and how this availability may impact Smart Grid deployments.”
Further the commission is asking questions on whether licensed or unlicensed spectrum is suitable for smart-grid applications, any potential interference problems and how secure and reliable the network needs to be. Finally, the commission is seeking to know the role that real-time data will play in reducing energy consumption and making the utilities grid operate more efficiently and how smart meters contribute to that today.
Comments are due Oct. 2.
