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A new era of energy services is on the horizon. Soon, utilities and municipalities will have the capability to support activity such as demand control, video monitoring of grid assets, real-time information access for customer service and mobile technician. While this vision still largely remains five to 10 years out, the wireless network architecture decisions made today will greatly influence the scale and scope of what utilities and municipalities will be able to develop for the future. Faced with four communications architecture options today spanning both private and public networks, utilities must balance the right approach with latency, quality of service, broadband and mobility requirements that go hand-in-hand with enabling a truly “smart” grid.
Architecting the smart grid
Reading meters is the one application that today’s smart grid network infrastructure was built for. Utilities and municipalities, however, want to move beyond delivering the service levels that are limited by the current infrastructure and migrate to an “intelligent” infrastructure that can flexibly address future needs and services. A smart grid is one that incorporates information and communications technology into every aspect of electricity generation, including delivery and consumption in order to improve reliability and service, as well as addresses how to minimize environmental impact, reduce costs and improve efficiency.
Utilizing 4G technology is a critical component to opening the two-way communication needed to make the smart grid a reality. Multiple applications and devices will be deployed across various segments of the power grid, including smart home devices, smart meters, distribution automation devices, video surveillance cameras, renewable energy sources, electric vehicle charging stations, hand-held devices used by the line-truck crews and mobile work forces. All of the devices will require connectivity and will rely on some sort of network infrastructure, most likely to be wireless. Once the network infrastructure is in place, the utility will be able to deploy the smart grid control and analytics that will ultimately achieve the smart grid project objectives. While the network infrastructure may be based on multiple networks each serving a different component of the smart grid, the “middle mile” which connects all the sub networks into one holistic “network of networks” will become the most critical part of the network.
Today, the middle mile is operating using narrowband networks. Why is this a problem? The middle mile will start to crumble under growing bandwidth and low latency demand as the number of smart grid applications and services are built on top of existing networks increases. A domino effect originating from the middle mile could increase latency and decrease quality of service to the point where services could greatly suffer or even fail. 4G network infrastructure is the ultimate choice for the middle mile as it meets the current and future smart grid application requirements.
Buy or build – The four options
Utilities and municipalities must make an architectural choice today to protect the integrity of the energy infrastructure. There are four approaches for building out an intelligent 4G smart grid network – all with their own unique challenges and opportunities.
Public networks allow utilities and municipalities to take advantage of availability, managed services and smaller initial investment benefits. Most importantly, they allow utilities to take advantage of the infrastructure already in place, allowing them to save up-front costs. For example, a utility often uses public networks for pilot programs because communications can be obtained as a service and doesn’t require internal expertise to manage. However, coverage limitations, lack of control, security and no return on equity can be drawbacks to this approach.
Another challenge in utilizing public networks is that carriers have to bend to the needs of cellular subscribers, which could result in performance issues during peak times that could negatively impact smart grid service delivery at the time it is most needed. For utilities concerned about this issue of reliability, there is the option of non-cellular networks. Alternatives, such as wireless ISPs, can deliver the advantages of public networks and 4G service without disruption.
On the opposite side of the spectrum from public networks are private networks. Generally speaking, private networks provide greater control, reliability, performance, ROE and coverage than public networks. Utilities that want to ensure their networks comply with utility and communications standards and can deliver enhanced performance with guaranteed QoS and service level agreements should consider building private networks from the ground up. Although this approach can be more costly, it enables the most security control possible.
If building from scratch is not an option, there are currently over 900 private networks owned by municipalities or cooperatives in the United States that utilities can potentially leverage. These municipal or cooperative owned networks are ideal for smart grid deployments because they were already built and optimized for multiple applications in mind such as surveillance, education and more.
Utilities have an important decision to make today to enable the services of tomorrow. Whether public, private or hybrid, there is no universal approach that will work for every utility or municipality. However, as the spoke of the smart grid wheel, the middle mile network must be built to withstand the high bandwidth, latency and quality demands of future services. Selecting the appropriate 4G architecture is a difficult balancing act that must weigh each utility’s corporate priorities against cost, ease of deployment, control, quality and other key metrics. In the end, only a purposefully architected and intelligent smart grid will be able to support the next generation of network applications.
