Barriers to Utility Adoption of Public Wireless Networks for Smart Grid Diminishing, Says Sprint Executive
The “hurdles” for utilities’ use of public cellular networks for smart grid projects have “dropped significantly in terms of monthly costs and the costs to embed connectivity into the smart meter,” a Sprint Nextel executive said. The company believes there’s a role for public and private networks in the smart grid arena, said Brian Huey, manager of smart grid and utilities business development and strategy. “But we are seeing a trend where [resistance] to public networks has dropped significantly."
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
"What has precluded public cellular networks from being deployed in smart meters several years ago were the costs,” Huey said, just like the costs now to put LTE in the smart meters. With 3G deployments for the smart meter, the costs of the “actual chip to embed in the meter has dropped significantly and the monthly recurring cost has dropped significantly as well,” he said. On smart grid cybersecurity, Sprint supports standards and will continue to work with standards bodies, he said. Data transmission on the CDMA network is fairly secure, he said. Sprint also adds “other layers of security where we segment the [smart grid] data from public cellular data."
The carrier has developed or is building partnerships in all the smart grid “domains,” Huey said in an interview. In the smart meter segment, the wireless carrier is partnering with device makers Itron, General Electric, Landis+Gyr and Elster, he said. The company also is active in the demand-response and distribution automation space, he said. “We are establishing partnerships within the distribution grid as well as enhancing partnerships within the AMI grid."
Inside the home, Sprint is working with appliance makers and CE device manufacturers to “build connectivity into products” so they can be part of the smart grid, said Huey said. He declined to name the manufacturers. Sprint helps the device makers choose the right chipset, and provide the communications options, he said. Sprint recently said it will provide wireless connectivity for ECOtality’s residential and commercial electric vehicle charging stations. The “opportunity” with smart meters is “quite large,” Huey said. ABI Research has forecast that smart meter installation will grow to 12 million in 2015 from 4 million this year, he said.