The retail electricity distribution grid regularly presents the “Achilles’ heel” of energy strategy. Two chief culprits are —
- Power Theft is rampant: The U.S. loses 7% of generated electricity to thieves; South Africa sees 25% to 30% energy theft; Karachi, Pakistan is not paid for 65% of the electricity generated, as organized crime simply takes it. The power grid has little visibility of who is tapping its energy for what.
- Power Disruptions are usually reported by customers BEFORE the operator knows about it. The myriad of power grid management / diagnostic applications required to control reliability and prevent service interruptions cost heavily and require sophisticated new IT skill-sets.
We have developed the Power Grid Network to deploy a proprietary telecommunications service on a fiberoptic broadband network that takes advantage of the ‘universal reach’ of the power distribution grid that provides electricity everywhere any subscriber either lives, plays or works.
The Power Grid Network is able to finance the so-called ‘smart grid’ application services the grid requires to obviate power theft and prevent power disruptions. The Power Grid Network enables the power distribution grid to pay only for the usage of these application services so that the electricity subscriber is not overwhelmed with tariffs that must recover major capital expenditures for the ‘smart grid’.
The Power Grid Network (PGN) initiative delivers a number of benefits for local power distribution grids, such as:
- A financial partner that pays for smart grid applications operating under its user’s directions
- A R&D partner that exploits all ‘lessons learned’ from many Power Grid Networks
- An ISP that subsidizes Internet access for the distributor’s offices, its community’s schools, libraries, and medical facilities.
The PGN Initiative shoulders many local power distributor burdens by bringing world-class financial and technological resources to the table. These include but aren’t limited to:
- Infrastructure investment resources
- Telecommunications expertise / manpower with vendor independence
- New technology solutions carried by extreme capacity broadband
- Smart grid research / development / deployment / operations & maintenance expertise / manpower with vendor independence
Many challenges faced by the local power distributor today will be eliminated. In return, the distributor‘s responsibilities to the PGN will include:
- Provide right-of-way for the PGN’s smart grid applications and broadband / mobile applications
- Set smart grid strategy based on grid and grid customer benefits / requirements
- Direct when and how smart grid applications will operate
- Approve data integrity / security so that customer data can fairly adjudicate service / billing disputes
- Pay service fees only for actual smart grid application usage to PGN
For more information, please see: PGN BP Overview