Challenges Faced by Electrical Utilities

1. Global Standards Collaboration (GSC) 14 Challenges Faced by Electrical Utilities Doug Sward ISACC

2. Challenges Faced by Electrical Utilities • Smart meter deployment • Installation of smart meters • Not just passive meters • Monitoring of consumption / cost by homeowners • Pro-active management of consumption by grid management authority • Alternative methods of power generation • Numerous small generators • Biomass, Wind, Solar (including domestic solar panels) • Bidirectional electrical grid • Real time fault isolation - Greatly increased level of complexity • Grid Security

3. Management And Control Of The Electrical Grid • All these new requirements translate into the need for • end-to-end monitoring and control of the electrical grid all the way to the periphery of the distribution network • This can be achieved using an all-IP wide area telecommunication network • This network needs to have wide reach and sufficient capacity – including many remote areas where other telecom facilities are not available

4. The Canadian Solution First Come First Serve Licensing • Relaxed required antenna directivity for the 1800-1830 MHz block • This will allow deployment in star topology (ptmp) • Broadband access technology in TDD mode envisioned • The relaxed parameters apply only to systems for management of electricity • Other fixed ptp systems still able to use the band using existing parameters • New ptmp systems need to protect existing fixed systems http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/smt-gst.nsf/eng/sf09174.html

5. Next Steps/Actions • New technical standards including these relaxed technical parameters were published June 20, 2009 http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/smt-gst.nsf/eng/sf01268.html • Trials are being set-up by electrical utilities to validate the integration of wireless telecommunication network with the grid management applications