[HCRA] BPL - IBM

Tue Jul 12 10:51:31 EDT 2005

The last week or two has shown a dramatic increase in
the number of BPL stories appearing in the technical
and popular press.  The following was taken from CNET
News.com Morning Dispatch this morning.    

Still think this is not a threat???  Read the last 2
paragraphs...

IBM teams up for broadband over power line

By Marguerite Reardon
http://news.com.com/IBM+teams+up+for+broadband+over+power+line/2100-1034_3-5783710.html

Story last modified Mon Jul 11 15:43:00 PDT 2005 

IBM is teaming up with CenterPoint Energy to test
technology that could turn power lines into a
high-speed network capable of delivering Internet
access to consumers and providing real-time monitoring
of the power grid, the companies said Monday. 
IBM will help electric utility operator CenterPoint
design, build and manage the new network. CenterPoint
has already opened a center at one of its facilities
in Houston to test the technology. In June, the
utility started a limited pilot program providing
broadband over power line, or BPL, service to roughly
220 consumers in the Houston area. 

The pilot is expected to be completed in August.
CenterPoint will then evaluate the possibility of
market deployment. In the pilot program, CenterPoint
is seeing download speeds up to two to three times
faster than cable Internet service, a company
representative said.

For several years, people have thought that BPL could
allow electric companies to become a viable third
alternative to the cable and telephone companies
providing high-speed access to the Internet. But
technical issues have kept the technology from being
deployed widely. What's more, critics say turning
electric utilities into consumer broadband providers
will cost the industry billions of dollars because of
the need to upgrade existing electrical grids.

But there has been renewed interest in the technology
as companies such as Google make significant
investments in companies delivering BPL service.
Supporters of the technology also say consumer
broadband service is only one application that energy
companies such as CenterPoint are considering as they
look to deploy BPL technology. 

"A lot of people have been focusing on BPL as the
third competitive leg in the broadband market," said
Raymond Blair, vice president for IBM's Broadband Over
Powerlines initiatives. "But that is only the tip of
the iceberg. The main reason utilities want BPL is to
manage their businesses better."

Previous Next Because BPL essentially turns the
electrical grid into an Internet-based network, every
device attached to the grid will be able to
communicate with other devices on it. This means BPL
technology has the potential to develop a "smart
grid," which could allow for such services as
automated meter reading, real-time system monitoring,
preventive maintenance and diagnostics, outage
detection and restoration, as well as other potential
applications.

"Today, utilities are generally unable to see beyond
our substations," said a CenterPoint representative.
"But with BPL we could see the health and status of
our network down to the outlet in the home. These
smart grid technologies should result in improved
system reliability and service for our electric
customers."

An Internet-enabled power grid could also have helped
prevent the Northeast power blackout in 2003, said
IBM's Blair.

"Power companies would have been able to shut down
parts of the network," he said. "Or they could have
identified a weak transformer and proactively fixed it
before it caused the entire blackout."

73,
Marc
K1MZ

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com 