Spectrum Bridge deploys smart-grid with utility co-op, Google

Spectrum Bridge Inc. said it is working with a California utility to use white-spaces technology to deploy a smart-grid network in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and offer wireless broadband service to area residents.
Spectrum Bridge is working with the Plumas-Sierra Rural Electric Cooperative to manage the supply and demand of electricity, improve System Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) at substations, and with Google Inc., which is supplying its free PowerMeter sevice.
The project to show how a smart-grid network can work is part of Spectrum Bridge’s continuing push to show how white-spaces spectrum can be used as a Wi-Fi-like, next-generation technology, said CEO Richard Licursi. White-spaces spectrum can propagate through dense forestry and rugged terrain, reaching eight to 10 miles at a time, Licursi noted. Lake Mary, Fla.-based Spectrum Bridge eventually wants to sell its technology to original equipment manufacturers at the chip, device and access point level. As such, the company has built a wireless broadband network in a small Virginia town using white-spaces technology. The company has operated a smart city to show how wireless broadband via white spaces could be used for public security and telemetry applications. Licursi said the Gulf of Mexico oil catastrophe provides another example of how white-spaces technology could be used – to monitor water quality.
“PSREC currently employs a wide variety of wireless solutions across multiple frequency bands, but still faces challenges in some areas due to challenging terrain,” the companies said in a press release. “The applications deployed for the Plumas-Sierra ‘Smart Grid’ wireless network trial deliver real-time broadband connectivity to remote substations and switchgear, allowing PSREC system operators to manage the electrical system remotely, request critical data from substations, manage power flow and protect the system and employees while maintaining the local grid.”
Further, the access points in the home use Google’s PowerMeter product so residents can monitor their electrical use, said Licursi, explaining that Google wanted to sample how its product did in this environment. Residents also can deploy Wi-Fi in the home and use the white-spaces spectrum for backhaul to get broadband connectivity from the co-op.
The Federal Communications Commission approved white-spaces spectrum for unlicensed use. The agency was concerned, however, that the technology operating on the white-spaces spectrum, not interfere with existing uses of the frequencies, like TV broadcasting channels and wireless microphone uses. As such, white-spaces radios must “check in” with a white-spaces database to make sure the spectrum does not cause interference.