Smart Electricity

Cities everywhere are turning to smart electricity solutions to meet the growing demand for electricity with a power grid that is reaching its limits. While the decades-old electricity grid is considered a marvel of engineering, it is constantly pushed to do more than it was designed for, resulting in higher costs and less-then-reliable energy delivery at times.

Smart electricity technology, also known as a smart power grid, uses data and analytics to overcome the limitations of the current infrastructure and to deliver electricity more effectively and cost-efficiently. Smart electricity solutions use Internet of Things (IoT) sensors to collect data about the health, performance and capacity of the entire system – from power lines, transformers and substations to energy consumption within individual homes and businesses. By more effectively balancing demand with available energy and by anticipating and resolving issues more quickly, smart energy systems enable utilities to make better use of existing infrastructure, avoiding or postponing the need to invest in costly new power sources.

The benefits of smart electricity

Smart electricity systems offer a wealth of benefits to municipalities and their utilities. With smart grid technology, utilities can:

• Improve reliability. With greater visibility into the health of the smart electricity grid, utilities can use data from smart grid IoT sensors to proactively monitor the load on the grid, distribute energy more effectively and prevent issues by avoiding stress on power infrastructure.
• Increase supply. Smart electricity solutions can more easily incorporate power generated by alternative sources like wind and solar, and by customer-owned power generation sources.
• Protect critical infrastructure. Protecting utilities from cyberattack is a critical priority, and smart energy technology allows utilities to identify and stop attacks much sooner.
• Reduce costs. Smart electricity systems allow utilities to reduce the cost of operations and distribution, and those savings can be passed on to customers.
• Recover quickly. Smart electricity technology provides visibility throughout the system, allowing grid managers to pinpoint trouble, resolving issues more quickly and routing power around problem spots.
• Empower consumers. Smart electricity grids offer two-way communication between utilities and home and business consumers, providing consumers with real-time data about their energy use as well as energy pricing. This allows consumers to make smarter choices about energy to save on costs and reduce their total energy consumption.

Spectrum Enterprise: delivering smart electricity connectivity

Smart electricity grids – as well as other smart technologies like smart street lighting, smart traffic management and smart air quality monitoring – rely on a variety of technologies such as cellular, wired and wireless connections to transmit data from smart energy sensors to the analytics platforms that aggregate and analyze the data. A smart grid system also requires high-performing network that can easily manage the vast amount of data streaming in from sensors every second.

With one of the largest LTE cellular networks in the nation and more than 840,000 miles of fiber cable infrastructure throughout the country, Spectrum Enterprise is a trusted partner to many smart cities as well as communities that are starting to lay the foundation for smart infrastructure. With an additional $25 billion in additional capacity and capabilities planned over the next few years, Spectrum Enterprise is natural choice to help municipalities solve their urban challenges through high-speed connectivity.

To support the connectivity needs of a smart electricity system, Spectrum Enterprise provides:

• A two-way, fully interactive digital network with symmetrical connection speeds up to 100 Gbps for government and enterprise clients.
• Gigabit connections for homes and businesses, enabling smart energy systems to easily communicate with thermostats, sensors and other energy technology within the home or business.
• WiFi hotspots that will soon provide connection speeds up to 1 Gbps.
• Cellular connectivity through the same LTE network that powers Spectrum Mobile.

Learn more about Spectrum Smart Cities at www.spectrumsmartcities.com.