Hybrid PLC-Wireless Smart Grid Networks Seen
Building a communications network to facilitate a smart grid energy network will require more than one networking technology, and utilities and vendors are looking at hybrid powerline communications (PLC) and wireless networks to meet the task, said executives at the HomePlug Powerline Alliance technology conference Tuesday. “We're using what we call a dual approach,” said Gary Stuebing, a strategic planning manager for Duke Energy. “When we start looking at over-the-air technologies, we decided we're going to use Wi-Fi,” he said. “Our long-range approach is for PLC technologies, because we're going to need both."
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"Wireless and PLC is not a choice of either/or,” said Matt Rhodes, CEO of Semitech Semiconductor. Each technology will have its place in the network, and vendors need to pitch them based on how they'll be used, he said. “The smart grid is the next multibillion unit communications network and it’s just begun to be built,” he said. “It will take a long time, because the applications are not all settled, but that doesn’t mean there’s not a real opportunity,” he said.
Certain applications may be better suited for PLC than wireless for communications, executives said. Many involve adding a communications network to powerlines reaching remote locations, such as mines or solar arrays, they said. And for those types of applications less bandwidth may be needed, allowing for the use of narrowband communications at lower frequencies and higher power, they said. “The wire is there,” said David Waskevich, a market development engineer with STMicroelectronics. “If one of the drawbacks is the inability for me to see things, I have a conduit for bringing that information back” with PLC, he said.
PLC may also be a better technology than wireless for electric vehicle charging stations, said Robby Simpson, a system architect for GE Energy. “If I have a plug-in vehicle, and go visit a friend, it would sure be nice if that charge showed up on my bill,” he said. “Things like wireless communications may be a little less reliable in terms of associating a particular vehicle with a particular place that it’s plugged in,” he said.
Whatever the physical architecture of the network, communications over it must be IP-based, said Dule’s Stuebing. “In 2008, that was not a given. There was a battle going on and there were a lot of proprietary things out there causing all sorts of problems for” utilities.