DS2 chief urges IP-based standards for Smart Grid

A DS2 product story

Edited by the Processingtalk editorial team Jul 10, 2009

IP-based standards are the only way to provide the integrated and robust infrastructure necessary to support the Smart Grid of the future, according to Jorge Blasco of DS2.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4, Alan Stillwell, who led the recent enquiry by the Institute of Civil Engineers into the state of our current utilities infrastructure, highlighted the fact that the UK's existing infrastructure is 'vulnerable to disruptions' and needs to be made more robust.

The Smart Grid of the future will provide many aspects of this robustness, such as reliability, stability and practicality, but there are issues involved in its development that need resolving before this Smart Grid technology can become robust enough to support the expected demand.

Blasco, chief executive officer at DS2, a powerline chipset manufacturer, said: 'One of the main problems facing vendors and industry organisations today is what technologies and standards should be used as the foundation for the future Smart Grid and, as you might expect, everyone is pushing their own - often incompatible - view.

'For example, each communication technology often comes with its own management protocol, so if a utility uses three or four different communications technologies for its Smart Grid, it may end up with three or four different management systems that don't talk to each other.

'If the Smart Grid is to become a reality, there needs to be a single interoperability standard and, in DS2's view, it should become an IP-based Smart Grid,' he added.

This is because, today, millions of people connect to the internet using a variety of PHY/MAC technologies, including Ethernet, Wi-Fi, powerline, DSL, cable-modem and 3G mobile phones.

One of the solutions to the problem of managing systems based on incompatible technologies is an IP-based standard.

It has been tried and tested and has proved that it can provide a common communication protocol for disparate PHY/MAC technologies.

Blasco continued: 'An IP-based Smart Grid would enable every Smart meter, every Smart appliance and every distributed sensor to have its own IP address, which will ultimately enable remote management.

'By using this type of management system, utilities can deploy completely different PHY/MAC communication systems in different parts of their grid and still control them with a unified management system,' he said.