Smart Grid

As governments and utilities work to shore up power grids that are decades old, many are turning to smart grid technology to increase energy efficiency, improve service and boost the security of one of the nation’s most critical sources of power.

The technology currently in place for managing electrical grids is severely limited. When there are outages, utilities can’t determine what the problem is without dispatching workers to physically inspect the wires. When electricity is an extreme demand, utilities have few options for generating additional power and can typically avoid brownouts or blackouts only by asking customers to reduce their electrical usage.

A smart grid uses Internet connectivity and Internet of Things (IoT) sensors to bring a new level of intelligence to electricity generation, transmission and distribution. By placing smart grid IoT sensors in substations and on transformers and by providing two-way communication between utilities and the thermostats in homes and businesses, utilities gain critical insight into usage, performance and efficiencies that can help to meet the many challenges of delivering power in the 21st century.

The advantages of a smart grid

By deploying smart grid technology, governments and utilities can:

• Increase reliability of aging power infrastructure.
• Distribute energy more effectively during peak and off-peak times by proactively monitoring the load on the grid.
• Increase energy supply by bringing alternative smart electricity generation and storage options into the mix.
• Protect essential infrastructure from cyberattack and natural disasters with physical and environmental monitoring.
• Save money by reducing the cost of distributing electricity, limiting waste, and by making better use of existing infrastructure rather than requiring costly investment in new power plants.
• Resolve issues quickly by enabling smart electrical grids to anticipate and respond to issues with self-healing capabilities, and by relying on real-time troubleshooting with clear insight into the health of systems and the location of problems.
• Track usage carefully to measure performance and optimize utility operations.
• Enable consumers to participate in energy conservation by giving them more choice and increased interaction with the smart power grid.

Spectrum Enterprise: providing the infrastructure for today’s smart grid

Like all smart city technology, a smart grid requires four layers of infrastructure:

• A widespread sensor network for collecting smart energy data.
• A high-performance network for transmitting data.
• Analytics for transforming raw smart grid data into actual information.
• Interfaces that enable utility administrators to interact with data to glean insight and intelligence.

As a trusted technology partner to cities throughout the country, Spectrum Enterprise is already investing in the network layer of smart grid architecture. Spectrum has built a fully interactive, two-way digital network with over 840,000 miles of connectivity nationwide. Our enterprise clients can take advantage of 100 Gbps symmetrical speeds, and we offer gigabit connections to more than 50 million homes and businesses. The LTE cellular network at powers Spectrum Mobile is one of the largest in the country, and our 350,000 Wi-Fi hotspots across the nation will soon add 5G and 802.11ax technology that is capable of 1 Gbps wirelessly.

With Spectrum Enterprise as a partner, cities and utilities can deploy smart grid technology more easily to deliver the energy solutions that will be the foundation of tomorrow’s smart cities.

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