It's not news to most utility executives engaged in smart grid and smart metering deployments that cellular is quickly emerging as an attractive option for communications networks. For those professionals responsible for making the big decisions, IDC Energy Insights offers a helpful overview of cellular's growth, recent market developments and how utilities are incorporating it into their smart grid planning.

 

The report, Cellular Inroads to Smart Grid, notes that many utilities have chosen cellular to ensure data delivery, security and accessibility for their applications. Commercial cellular is now widely used for backhaul communications in advanced metering installations in North America and offers established reliability in large-scale deployments.

 

But is cellular's upswing in popularity as an AMI backhaul technology mean an even stronger presence to come in smart grid? The IDC report outlines a number of benefits utilities should consider when making their decisions, and it answers that question.

 

Among the benefits addressed are:

·         Pricing

·         Supported hardware

·         Reliability

·         Smart grid service offerings

 

Get the IDC report on Cellular Inroads to Smart Grid

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Telecoms for Smart Grids

Thanks for this great article, we certainly are seeing or should I say hearing a lot of debate on Cellular here in Europe- Is it reliable? If we cannot rely on a phone call staying connected how can we ever rely on it for Critical infrastructure? The debate goes on. According to my vendor sources here Long Radio Radio is the wave of the future and the Satcoms players also have a strong backhaul message. Hybrid seems to be most practical, but do Utilities even really know what they need? Risky business?

Jamison Nesbitt - 06/01/2012 - 06:26

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