Making "Smart" Intelligent With FTTH

By: Mike Smalley, 2008

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Why FTTH for utilities and why now?
• How can you get the most bang for your buck with FTTH?
• How can FTTH with the right applications impact the way utilities operate, and ultimately the lifestyles of end-users?

THE WAY THINGS ARE

A growing need for increased information flow and visibility between utilities and other energy providers and end consumer users along with rapid advances in technology begs the question: Where do we go from here? In an industry where the same best practice applications and communications technologies have been sufficient for decades, recognizing, accepting, and acting on the growing need to manage exponentially more information is a challenge.  With demand for energy rising globally, energy providers are beginning to see the value in gaining real-time information to make real-time decisions in order to mitigate the effects of shrinking generation reserves, outdated communications infrastructures, and lack of true visibility and control. 

This in mind, Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) is quickly becoming the communications medium of choice in many progressive communities across the country, with FTTH deployments even happening at various levels within the utility industry. This is a growing trend across the country where utilities, both electric cooperatives and municipal systems are deploying FTTH services and gaining tremendous utility benefits related to the network infrastructures that are being put in place.  In addition, many rural telephone companies are also upgrading their decades old copper plant to state of the art FTTH optical infrastructures in order to modernize their systems and offer triple-play services according to the competitive landscape.

For utilities, FTTH offers an unprecedented opportunity to transition an “old-school” industry into an information-rich environment. Traditionally, what has worked for years are metering systems that rely heavily on manual practices or low-band, closed communications infrastructures only capable of transmitting limited packets of data at limited intervals – from once a month to once a day. 

Key drivers pointing towards the need for broadband infrastructures include the Department of Energy’s Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct 2005). Key elements of EPAct direct energy providers to explore and implement the means to obtain and analyze real-time utility information at a granular level to support 2-way information flow from the provider to consumer related to the performance of the electric grid.  EPAct also directs utilities to explore and implement solutions for the prepayment of electricity, demand side management, and transmission and distribution automate.  Coincidentally, none of these objectives are truly attainable without employing some reliable means of collecting, carrying, and storing energy data continuously over an “always-on” connection.  Other key topics in today’s energy market are the implementation of Green Energy Initiatives designed to monitor, educate, control & ultimately reduce usage and impact on the environment. 

Continued

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