Critical Communications
Amy Cooke, Business Development Director at Cable&Wireless Worldwide discusses how secure communications are fundamental to the development of the smart grid.
The World Economic Forum recently stated that smart grids are fundamental to a worldwide low-carbon economy. Smart Grids will also benefit utilities and consumers through reduced network losses and improved electricity network reliability.
While the smart grid will require a multitude of technologies such as smart meters, sensors, monitors, data storage and analytics, all of these are just parts of the puzzle. In the same way that the internet invisibly glues together servers and connections and applications, it is the connecting communications network that is central to the smart grid’s success.
We all take for granted the communication systems that support the likes of ATM machines and wireless hotspots. Utilities in turn should not preoccupy themselves with the communications network that sits behind the smart grid. It just needs to be seamless, effective, fast and secure: an invisible, silent, reliable ‘given’.
To make the smart grid real, the UK faces a number of challenges, not least of which will be ensuring it, and the myriad of systems attached to it, are secure. Security must be foremost from the very first steps of development. The smart grid is as critical to the smooth operation of the nation and the economy as the road and rail networks, or the internet, and must be considered as such. The operating models between utilities and Information Communication Technology (ICT) companies will have to be based on broad and deep trusted partnerships involving ICT companies who acutely understand the responsibility involved in transmitting and managing critical data.
Utilities will be focussed on harnessing the intelligence the smart grid will give them to analyse what’s happening across transmission and distribution networks. That intelligence allows them to continue to guarantee reliable and high quality energy supply and distribution despite the numerous changes that will be wrought on their business by increasing penetration of renewable generation, electric vehicles, and combined heat & power systems (CHPs). But gathering all of that intelligence without the right network behind it is like giving someone an email account, without internet access.
Delivering a unified system demands that utilities and communication partners develop a patchwork of initially independent communications networks focussed on the best economics possible. Clean power at a universally consistent entry cost must remain a touchstone of the infrastructure programmes that will create the smart grid. To maximise business cases, utilities will need communication partners with proven credentials.
Cable&Wireless Worldwide has a strong heritage in the utility sector. It has more than 1,100 operational network sites in the UK, many of them co-located at substations and on the transmission companies’ real-estate and in excess of 30,000 route kilometres of glass fibre, most of it wrapped around the earth wire of much of the UK’s energy transmission networks. This gives it unparalleled understanding of the issues faced by energy providers.
The smart grid will require significant investment, one that’s worth making to leave a sustainable and technologically rich critical asset as our legacy for future generations. Now is the time for communication providers and technology companies to invest and experiment in durable smart grid technologies that are fast, secure and reliable.
To learn more about Cable&Wireless Worldwide and the Smart Grid please visit www.cw.com
