Smart Grid Blog

A strong opportunity exists for telecoms operators to enter the power market by providing backbone infrastructure for smart grids. This is the core finding of a new report from global management consultancy Arthur D. Little – “Smart Grid opportunities for telcos” – in which experts analyze a range of business models in the context of smart grid adoption, and evaluate their attractiveness and feasibility for telecoms operators. The consultancy has additionally developed a “Future Grid Strategy Kit” for telecoms operators to help them to prepare for a successful entry into the power market.

via Arthur D. Little: Telecoms Operators Prepare to Tap into the Smart Grid | Benzinga.com.

The telecom and utility industries haven’t always agreed on how to work together — which is why utility companies have traditionally built their own communications networks. But with the major opportunity called “smart grid” looming, there is a new study afoot aimed at bringing the two sides together, or at least finding common ground.

The effort is being led by Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) and the Utilities Telecom Council Inc. , a trade association representing the communications networking efforts of about 700 utility companies. (See Verizon Talks Smart Grid.)

via Light Reading – Verizon – Can Utilities & Telecom Team on Smart Grid? – Telecom News Analysis.

In the telecommunications business most telephone calling and Internet surfing is done at fixed prices; the trend favors flat rates. But, there’s no flat rate for electricity, where, to an increasing extent, the ground rule is “use more, pay more.” That rule is likely to be applied even more stringently in the future.

With time-of-use pricing, which is opposite of flat rate pricing, if a customer uses his or her washer and dryer during peak demand periods, that customer will pay a hefty surcharge. But, if the customer does his or her laundry at night when demand is low, that customer will get a discount. On weekends, electric power might even be free. Why make things so complicated when customers like them simple?

via Smart Meters Help Stabilize the Grid – Utility Automation/Electric Light & Power.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is setting up two new focus groups – one to look at cloud computing and one at smart grids – to identify what future telecommunications standards might be needed to support these technologies.

Any standardisation requirements identified by the groups will be taken forward by relevant ITU-T (Telecommunications) study groups.

via iTWire – ITU to examine cloud computing and smart grids.

There are a lot of similarities between the build out of telecom and Internet infrastructure, and the current rollout of the smart grid. But here’s one major, and very important, difference between the construction of communications and energy networking, which the President and Chief Operating Officer of utility ComEd, Anne Pramaggiore, mentioned on a panel at the Cleantech Investor Summit last week: unlike broadband and telecom service providers, utilities are very risk averse.

via Smart Grid 101: Utilities Are Very Risk Averse.

As a telecom veteran, I sometimes get a sense of deja vu at Smart Grid conferences.  There are some strong similarities between the telecom industry of 25 years ago and electric utilities today.  I know how much the utility industry hates to hear that but it is true.  Here are the similarities and important lessons to learn from history.

Exceptional Mission.  Employees in the land-line phone company had an obligation to deliver dial tone – even when the lights went out, and they had their own banks of batteries for back-up power so people could call to report electricity outages…

via Telecom Industry Lessons for Electric Utilities | Smart Grid Library.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski did an hour-long Q&A at GigaOM HQ with GigaOM founder Om Malik and senior writer Stacey Higginbotham, in which they tackled issues like the lack of telecom competition and how to foster innovation in the broadband ecosystem. While Genachowski only briefly touched on the electric grid during his talk, after the session I asked him what the FCC would be doing when it comes to the smart grid.

via FCC Chairman on Smart Grid: Stay Tuned.

Carl Weinschenk spoke with Zpryme Research & Consulting Managing Director Mark Ishac. Last month, Zpryme released a snapshot report describing smart grid opportunities for hardware and software companies.

Weinschenk: Please characterize the relationship between smart grid, IT and telecom.

via For IT and Telecom, Smart Grid Offers Big Challenges and Big Potential | Interviews | ITBusinessEdge.com.

While many companies are poised to benefit from the $3.4 billion in smart grid grants, the government funds may do more than just lend itself to telecom companies looking to expand their efforts in smart grid technology.

When Obama announced the funding initiative in October, telecom companies and many U.S. states sprang to apply for grants. And, for many, the reward has been a sweet victory. For example, the state of California received $200 million from the funding. There’s more to come from that end, for sure.

via Smart Grid.

Atmel has announced a range of AVR wireless microcontroller (MCU) devices targeting wireless applications such as Zigbee and IPv6/6LoWPAN.

… Atmel’s picopower technology offers ultra-low power consumption to enable longer battery life for wireless Zigbee applications, including smart energy, building automation, telecom and health care.

via Atmel MCU devices target wireless applications: News from Atmel.

There is a common anecdote that very aptly compares the current state of the electric industry vis-à-vis the telecom industry.

It goes like this: “If Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison were alive, Bell likely would be thrilled to see cell phones and other advanced telecommunications inventions in wide use, while Edison would see basically the same system in place as when he invented the light bulb.”

via Smart Grid.

It’s no secret that the smart grid movement is a big hotspot for telecom companies – big and small – to branch into a new industry sector to expand business, growth opportunities and visibility in another market.

And now, with a new report from NanoMarkets, it seems that the smart grid movement will create opportunities for advanced materials suppliers as well.

via Smart Grid.

This week I attend my first Grid Week conference in Washington D.C., but I wasn’t the only newbie there. In contrast to most telecom trade shows this year, this jam-packed conference, in its third year of existence, sold out. The mostly vendor-driven show did have one important (at least to Connected Planet) segment missing, however – telecom service providers.

To be fair, it’s possible I missed some telcos roaming around at the crowded show. AT&T had a small table and Verizon had a few speakers on the panels. As an international show, it also attracted representatives from SK Telecom, looking at ways to get involved with smart grid in Korea as it plans to expand its network to complete a nationwide smart grid by 2030, according to an SK Telecom spokeswoman.

Even so, while speakers recognized the criticalness of communication infrastructure – Adrian Clark, Manger of Intelligent Network at EnergyAustralia’s Smart Grid Program called it the glue of the grid that holds the smart grid together – that was as far as telco discussions went. There was also a surprising lack of recognition of third party services like those from Google and Microsoft.

via Grid Week: A telecom missed opportunity | Unfiltered.

The smart grid is positioned as holding the answers to a lot of problems inherent in the complex and unwieldy beast that is the nation’s electric grid. It promises to enhance reliability, optimize energy delivery through granular control, give power to the consumer and minimize the grid’s huge environmental impact. The answers the smart grid provides present a compelling opportunity, but the movement brings up a lot of new questions too – especially for the telecom service providers looking for a piece of the action.

Before telcos can define their role in smart grids, they must first define what exactly a smart grid is. And, like most technologies, ask 10 people and expect 10 different answers. Jeff Taft, smart grids global chief architect for consultancy Accenture, said that the definitions that exist are focused in different ways – either on the technology, the functionality, the benefits or the role of the stakeholder defining it. Common to all definitions, however, are the four main goals of updating the grid: making it observable, measurable, controllable and automatable. Ultimately, it comes down to managing new flows of data, he said. Communications is key, and therefore, communications service providers could become key as well.

Right now, most telcos – including AT&T, Qwest and Sprint – are sticking with the partner route, offering utilities the power of their pipe. While most have been working with utilities for years now, this kind of collaboration, as well as the business model, is all new to them. As such, it also brings up new challenges and opportunities for the vendors they work with, the utilities that are used to making money from encouraging power use and their end consumers who have to decide if they even want to be an active participant in their consumption habits.

It’s a new world for everyone, not just the traditionally voice-centric telcos, but it is one that most are embracing. It’s important to get detailed answers to the question of what a utility wants in a telco and, conversely, what a telco needs from a utility to make the business case worthwhile. Ultimately, telcos need to decide if they have more to offer than just a fatter pipe. When it comes to the smart grid, the smartest route a telco can take is still up for debate.

via Seeking smart answers to grid questions.

Telecommunications technology is advancing so rapidly that there is considerable FUD factor (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) in the idea of locking in your communications strategy for 20 years. So the Telco says to the Utilityco: no worries, just outsource your grid communications to us!

Given the past problems with BPL and the expense of optical cable, wireless is attractive for avoiding the expense of adding relays and/or stringing new cable. Last week, we reviewed ZigBee as the emerging standard for short-range, wireless networks in the home and for aggregating data across the meters in a neighborhood. Here, we review the use of 3G cellular networks for wireless smart grid connectivity.

Third-generation (3G) cellular networks carry high-speed data as well as voice. They give your smartphone the ability to do email and surf the web. 3G is a collection of communication technologies including GSM EDGE, UMTS, HSPA, and CDMA2000 (details on Wiki). 3G supports data rates up to 14.4 megabits for downlink and 5.8 megabits for uplink. You’ll never see these speeds on your smartphone, those speeds apply to stationary devices such as will be used on the grid. The two largest wireless carriers in the US use different versions of 3G. AT&T uses UMTS and Verizon Wireless uses CDMA2000. As you know from switching cell phone providers, their gear is not interoperable. Standards groups are already working on the next-generation (4G) which uses an all-IP infrastructure and achieves gigabit speeds

Smart grid deployments use the cellular network for machine-to-machine communication (M2M). This market it heating up. Verizon Wireless and Qualcomm have formed a joint venture to provide M2M wireless services to a wide range of markets including medical monitoring, consumer electronics, and utilities.

One approach is to embed tiny cell phone SIM cards into the meters. The meter uses the SIM card to communicate with software applications on the network and at the utility operations center. In some architectures, groups of meters will communicate via powerline with one meter acting as a router and using its SIM card to send data from the group to the utility backhaul network. Another approach is to use short-range wireless to aggregate a group of meters and put the cellular connection on the meter aggregator. The strength of cellular is the ability to install a connection anywhere it is needed on the grid. This could be at the meter, aggregator, substation, or anywhere in between. The architecture will vary for urban and rural environments.

via Carbon-Pros Analyst Blog: Smart Grid and the Telcos.

In an article in SmartGrid.TMCNet, entrepreneur Shidan Gouran sketches out a variety of communications scenarios that future Smart Grid functions will need, including the ability of electric-vehicle charging stations to recognize and bill the car owner across different utilities; monitoring the large number of locations of a highly distributed generation system; accommodating a mobile workforce in the electricity industry; providing information not just from machine to machine, but from machine to human operators; and more. Given the amount and variety of the kinds of communications that the Smart Grid implies, a simple industrial control network is not an adequate model for Smart Grid communications, he says. The grid of the future will need something sophisticated like the most advanced IP-based systems of the communications industry.

Quick Take: Gouran is not the first to recognize the complex communications needs of the Smart Grid. That’s why telecom heavy hitters like AT&T or networking giants like Cisco see the Smart Grid as a titanic opportunity for them. This is why telecoms are suddenly getting very aggressive and lowering rates.

via Smart Grid: What Kind of Communications System Does the Smart Grid Need? – Smart Grid News – Grid Modernization and the Smart Grid.

We all understand that the Smart Grid is about communications between devices and control systems on the grid.

But what isn’t clear is if the technology and standards for this system need, or can, in fact, handle the sophistication typical of modern human-centric telecom networks. If we all agree that the scenarios I’m about to paint represent the desired vision of a future powered by Smart Grids, the answer becomes clear.

In the future I’m considering, nearly all electric powered devices in the home and industry are “connected” and with adequate smarts to respond to Grid events. It’s a world where Plug-In Electric Vehicles, or “PEVs,” are the norm. It’s also a future where power generation from highly distributed and mostly rural alternative energy sources fuel much of the nation’s energy consumption. Another consideration to keep in mind, although this Smart Grid is the pinnacle of automation, is that it’s still, ultimately, managed and controlled by people. So let’s consider some simple scenarios of these ideas in action and see what kinds of network interactions make sense.

Let’s start with PEVs. Big shock, cars move around quite a bit and are mobile devices. Now, as mobile devices which are powered by the Smart Grid and that charge at many public and private electric outlets, it makes sense to charge the owner of the car and not the owner of the building or location.

Grid authorization, authentication and accounting mechanisms, together with a security infrastructure, would be needed to ensure a device’s proper identity, the networks integrity and proper accountability. The accounting process would also have to include sophisticated and decentralized clearing-house services so consumers could charge their PEVs with roaming utilities. Of course all these requirements would extend to every mobile/portable electric device including laptops and other consumer electronics. Turning power consumption into an individualized experience should, in my opinion, be an important goal of the Smart Grid.

via Smart Grid.