Written by: Callan Kirschner and Mark Madden
The importance of highly reliable communications
Flip on a light switch, plug in a piece of equipment, turn up the heat or air conditioning—every day, homes, businesses, governments and institutions everywhere depend on power being there for life, work and public services. US utility data is exploding. Utilities have been looking at commercial carriers to get data services for grid operations, but their security and availability requirements exceed what is generally available in the market. One North American utility saw an opportunity to transform their capabilities with a Private LTE (PLTE) network, which could give them wireless broadband to meet their data needs and provide a lot of runway to support growth into the future. This is how they did it:
Seeing the need for a network reliable enough to support a utility’s essential demands
This utility recognized, “When bad things happen, like a hurricane or tornado, a utility’s communication network still has to function. Restoration efforts depend on it. One of [our] founding principles is to provide a highly reliable, resilient network for when those bad things happen.” Such a communication network also plays a key role in proactively identifying transmission and distribution issues to help prevent a service disruption from happening. That’s where being able to handle data traffic from systems like supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) and IoT sensors is essential. The utility’s challenge was that the legacy network that was in place was aging and could not support the anticipated data demands.
Choosing the right partner and spectrum for the long haul
Having decided to pursue private LTE, the utility’s next question was what technology partner to choose. As with any complex network deployment, LTE projects come with a few challenges—and that’s where true partnership proves its value. For example, utility companies generally have very limited spectrum options available for their network deployment, which can require some modifications by the utility’s partner in the way they configure their platform. Choice of low-band spectrum (lower than 1,000MHz) provides large coverage, while mid-band spectrum (higher than 1,000MHz) provides higher capacity.
Mission-critical services that utilities can count on
When first deployed, one US utility’s network broke new ground as the first highly reliable dedicated LTE network in the United States. Now, years later, it remains a benchmark for the industry. Today, several more utilities have begun deployments of their own, validating the solution. These 4G LTE networks stand apart from wireless networks offered by commercial carriers by offering enhanced high levels of security and resilience designed to support truly mission-critical services. In addition to this, the utility has the independence to set priority for the different types of mission-critical traffic, without the concern that consumer usage on their carrier’s network can impact network reliability. They provide over-the-air encryption from devices to towers and support encryption from the towers to the utility network’s core data centers. Moreover, redundancy is built-in, from cell sites and transports to power supplies. As utility experts have noted, “We know the lights do go out at times and when they do, the cell sites need to continue to work.” And they do—through hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and winter ice storms that may disrupt normal operations for weeks at a time.
New opportunities from addressing new use cases
Another way today’s utility PLTE networks have made a difference is the speed at which the company can deploy new applications. In fact, it’s been shown that a utilities company can now deploy new applications and solutions, on average, 80 percent faster than in the past. This opens up numerous possibilities, including extending SCADA to transmission devices in addition to distribution, automating substation devices and backhauling communications from the data collection points of its advanced metering infrastructure to the head end.
An example is a line fault indicator solution that one company wanted to roll out quickly. In a matter of months, they were able to deploy thousands of line fault indicators across the grid and feed data through the LTE network. A line fault indicator helps isolate the location of a fault on the electrical line, so when a crew is dispatched, they know exactly where it is, shortening their time to resolution. With their LTE network in place, utilities are able to support that important solution in a prioritized way alongside other applications, saving the cost and added complexity of using purpose-built, proprietary systems designed to support a single use case.
In fact, the LTE network has become a platform to continually support new applications and solutions. Also on the horizon are things like vibration monitoring on transmission towers, location-based services to streamline dispatching work orders, and automated lighting controls. The company can now pursue such advanced, data-intensive solutions because the LTE network is able to handle 100 times more data at speeds up to 1,000 times faster than was previously possible.
Provides a platform for delivering new services
With a highly reliable LTE network now fully operational, additional capabilities and services such as mission-critical push-to-talk (MC-PTT) are possible. Mission-critical push-to-talk is a solution developed specifically to meet the industry’s unique requirements, aligned primarily to 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) specifications for mobile telecommunications. 3GPP specifications focus on assuring reliability, low latency and voice quality. 4G LTE networks also provide the ability to expand in a backward compatible way by adding shared spectrum like CBRS on demand when there is a need to address services like mission-critical push-to-video MC-PTV that enhance MC-PTT. When someone pushes the button, they need to know with absolute certainty that their voice is intelligible and getting through to the other party within very tight time parameters—a big deal when there’s a safety incident and somebody needs help. It’s truly mission critical.
Summary
Private LTE networks provide substantial benefits to utilities. They reduce operational expenses and improve safety and reliability for mission-critical use cases over other commercial options. Overall, security is enhanced, and the utility maintains control over their operational destiny. Private LTE also provides the flexibility and determinism that utilities are seeking today and provides the foundation to build new grid operations capabilities tomorrow more cost-effectively. Utilities worldwide have adopted the technology for their business needs. The impactful results they’ve gotten will continue to encourage more utilities to evaluate and deploy PLTE in the near future. For those that have not already adopted it, now is the time for utilities to consider PLTE as an important strategic investment in their business. The world is moving in this direction.