HD Supply Utilities and Trilliant have announced their Smart Grid communications pilot program with Victoria Electric Cooperative, in Victoria, Texas. The pilot program includes a deployment of Trilliant's multi-tier SecureMesh Smart Grid solution to deliver advanced utility services. Victoria Electric Cooperative covers 1,800 square miles located in Southeastern Texas and serves six counties with approximately 19,500 residential and 540 commercial and industrial customers.
Victoria Electric's pilot program will be a 90-day test phase to designated locations in their service area. A successful implementation could mean a full rollout to their entire service territory. Initial applications will be to improve operational efficiency, provide interval data for Critical Peak Pricing (CPP) and Time-of-Use (TOU) rates, and enhance outage detection.
A key component in HD Supply Utilities' GridAdvance integrated, end-to-end Smart Grid solution, Trilliant's SecureMesh multi-tier architecture enables the two-way flow of data to integrate the utility's head-end systems with distribution, smart metering, and home devices. These sections of the grid correspond to communication tiers: a Wide Area Network (WAN) tier, which connects distribution devices and aggregates the Neighborhood Area Network (NAN) tier, which connects meters and aggregates the Home Area Network (HAN) tier, which connects in-home devices.
