Broadband is real-time key for U.S. utilities.
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The most complex, real-time system on earth is the U.S. electric grid. The essential thing that separates it from other complex systems which keep the world going lies in two words: real time.
A recognition of that is behind a new platform, created by Anterix, the Woodland Park, New Jersey-based telecommunications pioneer, to bring together broadband communications networks and to support the revolution taking place in the nation’s utilities. The platform will be guided by a panel of utility executives.
Possibly, the nearest thing to the real-time nature of electricity supply is the air traffic control system. But even that has some small flexibility: Every airplane doesn’t have to land simultaneously.
But every electricity customer expects service 24 hours a day, seven days a week at the flick of a switch. Providing this electricity is an ongoing miracle that has no equal.
Keeping the miracle going extends way beyond just the 3,000 U.S. electric utilities pumping electrons; it encompasses a multitude of complex, continuous interactions and micro decisions, which are ever more delicately balanced as the grid itself undergoes revolutionary changes.
Farewell To Fossil Fuel
These are the changes dictated as the grid moves off fossil fuel to renewables; as it braces for more frequent extreme weather events; and as it must integrate seamlessly multiple new and erratic sources of generation.
Supporting this is a parallel revolution in communications. Enter Anterix as a leader not only in offering individual private broadband networks, but also in thinking about the totality of communications needs.
Not so long ago, communications meant a telephone call or a or telex between operators. Now it is a continuous, dedicated flow of data at the speed of light.
Anterix’s new platform brings together thinkers and suppliers in the world of 4G and 5G broadband to supply service today and prepare for tomorrow. It is an outgrowth of a unique grouping of hardware and software suppliers, assembled last year by the company and which it calls an “active ecosystem.” While these 80 suppliers — including Cisco, Ericsson, GE Hitachi Energy, Motorola, and Nokia — remain competitive in every way, they are also collaborative.
Anterix President Robert Schwartz has been an advocate of a “network” within the utility communications space, ending with a “network of networks.”
Andres Carvallo, president of CMG Consulting and professor at Texas State University, speaking at a United States Energy Association press briefing recently, said the key to the data and communications future for the utilities is broadband.
“[Anterix] would like to see information flowing as smoothly through a network of communications as electricity does from multiple sources to multiple users,” he said.
Anterix said in announcing the integrated platform, “At the center will be a cloud-based 4G/5G core, enabling greater resilience and enhanced services between participating networks, including mutual aid, cybersecurity, shared infrastructure, and integration of distributed energy sources.”
Utility Heavy Hitters
Overseeing the platform is the Utility Strategic Advisory Board of C-suite utility executives from some of the most prominent utilities including Dominion Energy
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Steve Wooten, vice president and chief information officer of Dominion Energy, said, “It’s always beneficial to work with other utilities to address matters of industry-wide importance, and the adoption of private broadband and the solutions it can fuel is a great fit to apply this collaboration. Through the new Utility Strategic Advisory Board, we will help support a vibrant ecosystem of utility-centric innovation and solutions that are valuable to each utility individually and to the broader utility community as a collective.”
An endorsing view comes from Charles King, chief technology officer of Evergy. “The electric utility industry is known for its collaborative spirit, and adding a solutions platform informed by utility executives is a natural fit for that inclination. When our 900 MHz private LTE network is deployed, we clearly will benefit from working with other utilities including neighbor Ameren, where we share 25 counties, to identify and prioritize issues that will impact all of us.”
