In today's electric utility industry, utility companies face many challenges from aging infrastructure to the impacts of climate change. At the same time, they are faced with new opportunities including renewable energy projects and new energy demands, says Sean Adam, vice president of market strategy and innovation for AFL.
In our third T&D Talk podcast, Adam explains how Fiber Through the Grid technology will continue transforming the grid both today and in the future. He says fiber provides the only future-proof medium for broadband connectivity and offers many benefits.
"It is not susceptible to electro-magnetic pulse attacks, provides low-latency communication and control to quickly respond to outages and has less threats of security breaches compared to wireless," he says.
Adam says network and grid operators need to design for future needs and not just the challenges of today.
"The only thing we can be certain of is that we don’t know what the grid and the communication control network, which supports it, will be faced with a decade from now," he says. "A fiber-deep network provides the flexibility, extensibility and future accessibility, which can support these future needs."
