RAD Data Communications, the industry-leading manufacturer of telecommunications access solutions, has exhibited at the Smart Grids Summit 2009, which provides the electricity industry the opportunity to meet and discuss the formation of the European smart grid infrastructure.
“RAD is in a unique position to assist the power industry as it builds Europe’s smart grid infrastructure,” states Mati Epstein, Director of Strategic Sales Development at RAD Data Communications. “The industry faces a challenge since most substations are not equipped with native Ethernet connectivity, and multiplexers deployed in those substations in years past do not have Ethernet ports.”
The need to accommodate Ethernet at substations has resulted from several trends. More and more network elements – SCADA equipment, for example – are now Ethernet-based. In addition, substation equipment is increasingly managed remotely over Ethernet from a central site. Ethernet-based video surveillance has become routine. Field technicians now have to connect their laptops to the utility’s intranet. And finally, smart metering system data concentrated at a central location has to be backhauled over legacy networks. All smart metering devices have Ethernet interfaces.
“For substations lacking native Ethernet connectivity, the most cost-effective, guaranteed solution is to transport Ethernet over the legacy technologies supported by the existing multiplexers, which include SDH/SONET, PDH and copper,” Epstein explains. “This is the RAD advantage, since we offer a solution for providing any service over any technology,” he notes. “RAD has an answer for every possible scenario that could be employed for transporting Ethernet over any of these legacy networks at an affordable cost.”
RAD’s utility customers include Hydro Quebec and Atco Electric in Canada, Brazil’s Eletronorte, Enel, Italy’s largest electric company and the third largest energy supplier in the world, and Germany’s E.ON, the world’s largest investor-owned energy service provider.
The Smart Grids Summit 2009 was held September 14-15 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
