As utilities progress toward ambitious sustainability targets, many find themselves caught between competing priorities. Advancements in grid modernization have helped open doors for the accommodation of renewable energy, yet with this new era comes the challenge of maintaining the resiliency of an increasingly complex grid. High-speed, reliable communications infrastructure can be a key enabler of grid resiliency amid what can seem like a constant state of change.
In the 1990s, innovation in fiber optics made a lasting impact on the utility landscape. Many moved forward with fiber deployments to improve control and connectivity across their operations. Utilities couldn’t foresee all the ways they might harness these new capabilities, but they knew the infrastructure investments were necessary to adapt to a changing grid. As network demands have expanded since then, it’s now clear that they were on the right path.
The industry today stands at another inflection point with greater demands being placed on the grid. The rise of new innovations like artificial intelligence and electric vehicle charging are challenging utilities to find new ways to ensure resiliency amid growing demand. Just as they did in the 1990s, utilities are now called to apply a similar level of forethought as they re-envision the distribution model for the next stage of energy transformation.
To accommodate, utilities must transition away from the traditional one-way energy flow framework and toward a decentralized approach to enable bidirectional flow between provider and customers. This shift is important for improving sustainability and investments in new technology assets – including battery storage, microgrids and distributed energy resources – are needed to make it feasible.
That’s not all that is needed, however. New grid assets must be accompanied by a high degree of connectivity with the utility to ensure efficiency and mitigate potential disturbances across a decentralized grid – more connectivity than many are accustomed to with traditional networks that, until recently, have mostly been commercially owned by third party companies.
As organizations weigh grid upgrades to help facilitate progress, a high-speed and highly secure communications infrastructure should be a top priority. A network model boasting these capabilities will help provide the utility grade resilience needed for ongoing grid modernization efforts.
For perspective on evolving communications needs, consider how the energy transition affects key operational objectives. Ensuring the safety of field technicians is always a top priority, reliant on the ability to effectively monitor grid conditions; yet increasing decentralization makes this more complicated. Priorities like Volt/VAR optimization also become more complex but remain critical for operational efficiency.
Distributed intelligence and energy orchestration are important ways for utilities to streamline operations. A robust communications network can help maximize the efficiency and reliability of these systems as it can facilitate fast, 24/7 connectivity from central IT assets to the grid edge. Traditional carrier networks can help facilitate some siloed utility initiatives, but don’t typically possess low latency, layered connectivity, and security needed to accommodate the demands of the modern grid.
The shift to a private LTE (PLTE) network serves as an important step for many utilities in modernizing operations as they look to advance energy objectives. Bringing assets together under a single, secure network, private broadband can give providers a level of control and connectivity needed to support ongoing expansion, enhancing resiliency and security as growth and energy demand continues.
Depending on the environment, some utilities may want to explore a hybrid infrastructure that incorporates PLTE along with other topologies such as narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IOT), point-to-point and mesh. The size of the utility, as well as the specific needs and locations of devices, will dictate the appropriate network. For example, PLTE by itself won’t typically provide the right line of sight to cover all meters or capacitor banks across a territory. Therefore, a hybrid PLTE or combined NB-IOT and mesh network might be necessary.
While sustainability and innovation are at the forefront for the industry, storm resiliency and outage management are always top of mind. Utilities across the country have been impacted by the changing natural disaster landscape with severe weather incidents bringing significant damage. With these types of events poised to grow in frequency and intensity, utilities are exploring smart grid initiatives in parallel with the energy transition to improve their preparedness.
Private LTE remains a key resource for utilities looking to adopt smart grid solutions, such as advanced metering infrastructure and intelligent sensing systems. The high degree of communications speed and security provided with private LTE aligns with deployment of network integrated solutions that can improve response and restoration time. Combined with smart metering, for example, utilities can initiate remote management capabilities that turn their customer response efforts from reactive to proactive.
Private LTE also gives utilities the capacity, and in some cases, the latency requirements to continue expanding their grid strategies. Innovation in self-healing grids is now picking up steam as utilities look for effective ways to work through challenges of the 21st century. Private LTE serves as a mechanism for utilities to explore these types of advancing applications.
While there are exciting developments happening within the energy transformation, it’s important to remember that progress doesn’t happen all at once, and it doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Utilities are highly regulated and must go through regulatory and sometimes legislative processes with governments – as well as stakeholder engagement with communities – before embarking on major projects.
Collaboration is also important among utilities themselves as many are in different stages of their grid modernization journey, and some have already implemented private LTE networks. The process of sharing information and trading technical advice can help staff troubleshoot to ensure the best outcomes with new deployments. Creating a shared ecosystem rooted in the vision for advancement will help the industry move forward.
The Utility Broadband Alliance Summit and Plugfest presents use cases, discussion panels and exhibits to support utility communications and is role in grid modernization.
