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By Susan Layne, Alcatel-Lucent

The Electric Power Board (EPB) of Chattanooga, an electric power distributor and communications provider, wanted to enable their customers to better understand and control their energy usage.

EPB currently operates a high-speed optical fiber network — powered by gigabit passive optical network technology from Alcatel-Lucent — that connects all 170,000 homes and businesses within EPB's nine-county service area.  EPB offers advanced high speed broadband, voice, and video services to their customers utilizing their optical, Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) network.

 

In addition, as a part of this network, EPB is building one of the most advanced and automated smart grid networks in the world.  With wide-scale deployment of sensors and control devices at locations throughout the grid, coupled with pervasive broadband communications, the smart grid network will provide EPB with the ability to measure, monitor and control its electricity distribution network in real time.

Now, EPB and Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs have teamed up to develop new techniques to analyze devices and voltage at an unprecedented level of detail.  These new techniques will ultimately provide greater energy management capabilities to customers throughout the region, and will enable EPB to deliver the best possible power quality.

One of the groundbreaking aspects of Chattanooga's smart grid is the use of a new Bell Labs innovation that improves the overall stability and reliability of the energy delivery system.  Using advanced analytical techniques on the data collected through SCADA protocols from smart meters, sensors and control devices, Bell Labs is helping EPB reduce electric service outages and improve operational efficiencies while also enabling EPB's customers to manage energy costs and reduce power use during peak consumption periods.

EPB will use the analytics to:

·         Detect and fix anomalies in its distribution grid before they affect its customers' electric service.

·         More efficiently manage the power purchases from its energy supplier (Tennessee Valley Authority) during peak and off-peak hours

·         Offer value-added energy management services to help their customers better manage energy costs.

 

 

 

 

 

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