All major utility providers, including electric, gas, and water companies, are looking to improve their communication networks in order to maximize the benefit of their growing deployments of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) including new “smart grid” devices, surveillance video cameras and advanced information exchange protocols.
A migration toward an IP centric, high bandwidth, advanced and reliable communication network is required, not only between central substations, power plants, and administration offices but throughout the network to ensure effective service delivery, outage management and overall productivity.
Cost efficiency is a top priority for utility providers when evolving their network infrastructure to deliver reliable IP connectivity. Fiber does not reach all locations across the grid and is typically cost justified only if it is already present. Utility networks have an abundance of existing copper infrastructure that can be immediately and cost effectively expanded to deliver IP/Ethernet services and high throughput to all necessary locations.