Utilities Examining Several Spectrum Bands for the Grid of the Future, USEA Hears
The New York Power Authority is exploring numerous spectrum bands as it looks to put 150,000 sensor points throughout its network online, CEO Gil Quiniones said Friday on a webinar sponsored by the U.S. Energy Association. Morgan O'Brien, executive chairman of Anterix, said utility interest in the 900 MHz band has been strong. NYPA is the nation's largest public power provider.
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“We are digitizing everything at NYPA, on the inside and out,” Quiniones said. “A big part of that is creating a communications backbone. … We’re in the process of building a fiber-optic backbone on top of our transmission system, connecting all of our assets, and we are now testing a private wireless network.” Quiniones told us NYPA is exploring and plans a pilot of the citizens broadband radio service band. NYPA is also looking at the 600 and 900 MHz and 2.4 GHz bands, he said: Different bands will work for different “use cases.”
Advances in telecom and other IT will help utilities make their grids more efficient, Quiniones said. The capacity utilization of the grid in New York is 54%, he said. “Think of any other capital-intensive industry, if they can survive at 54% capacity factor,” he said. Higher capacity means cheaper service, he said.
Anterix can help utilities use the 900 MHz band to connect hundreds of thousands of sensors, O’Brien said. “We’re an enabling technology,” he said: “We have competition, of course. We think we’re the best option in terms of the way our spectrum is situated and the way it adapts seamlessly to the consumer-based LTE technology.” Anterix offers a path from 4G to 5G, he said. In May, the FCC approved broadband in a 6 MHz swath of the 900 MHz band, accepting a proposal promoted by Anterix (see 2005130057).
Utilities have been able to use 6 GHz “only for point-to-point” connections because it doesn’t have the same propagation characteristics as 900 MHz, O’Brien said. Electric utilities sought a stay of the FCC’s April order allowing Wi-Fi and other unlicensed users to share the 6 GHz band (see 2009180044). O’Brien said he told utilities before April they were “sure to lose” because of the FCC’s desire for advanced Wi-Fi. Hundreds of millions of people “are at home now, post-COVID, wanting the very best connectivity, for which this accelerated Wi-Fi will be used,” he said. “No one wants to share their spectrum, ever, but that’s the world that we live in.”
Anterix is in discussions with some 40 utilities on the 900 MHz band and has pilots with NYPA and others, O’Brien said. Expect announcements soon, he said.
“We keep innovating; we keep migrating to the next best thing,” said Andres Carvallo, CEO of CMG Consulting. “Don’t be thinking that 5G is hype, because 6G has already been announced,” he said. Delivery of power is “the most sophisticated thing to manage, the most complicated thing to manage,” he said. “The utility, when it decides to do something, must do it perfectly,” he said. What 5G guarantees is a “path forward” with better latency and connections, Carvallo said. Migrating from 4G should be “90% seamless” for utilities, he said.