Telco`s Get Turn Key Cloud Based Smart Grid Platform

Jan. 31, 2013 - PRLog -- Ever since the inception of the smart grid, some ten years ago, wireless telecommunications operators have for the most part have found themselves on the outside looking in on many smart grid projects. Some would say it`s simply because they the Telco`s don’t understand the energy business, others would say it was just pure economics. For what ever reasons the energy companies had, things have not exactly panned out they way the Telco operators had hoped, this however is about to change.

TPX Energy, the Melbourne Australia based M2M (machine to machine) smart grid developer say`s it is readying a cloud computing based smart grid platform for the Wireless Telco sector.

TPX CEO and principal architect James Eades said this week that this will be a win-win scenario for both sectors. What we are providing to the Telco`s is a turn key IP based solution loaded with advanced energy management software tools and making them available in the cloud that any utility can access.

These usually big ticket items include dynamic line rating (DLR), volt/VAR optimization, feeder analytics, Sag Simulation with optional GIS imaging and mapping tools that will help the utilities increase network efficiency, locate faults and manage vegetation more efficiently; while significantly reducing their cash flow and overhead expenditures.

Key to driving this is the companies next generation M2M smart grid sensing and communications’ device known as the Sniffer. Technically said Eades it`s a complete laboratory in a box, it`s a computer, a digital spectrometer, a magnetometer with an accelerometer and gyrocompass with onboard applications that can make complex wavelet computations and EMI filtering on an energized network.

In addition to the above, the device is fitted with three optical ports for accurate current/voltage and thermal readings, and can monitor the environment with a growing list of wireless fault and condition limit switch sensors.

For the utility said Eades ‘this represents a new real time visualization tool that will allow distribution and automation managers to peer deep inside their assets on a linier basis. It is IP condition based management that can detect virtually any fault but also gauge the severity of other conditions such as corona, partial discharge, arcing and tracking and alert you’.

Eades predicts that some Telco`s will offer the technology complete with software, spectrum and some bandwidth for as little as $24.95 per device per month, making the solution affordable enough for the energy suppliers to scale up. Given the cost of implementing any smart grid project now days, this would have to be one of the easiest and cost effective plug-and-play solutions available and putting it in the cloud was just a matter of time.

Interested utilities should contact TPX or their local wireless carrier for more details.