Cisco and Itron yesterday announced the launch of their next-generation smart grid platform. Designed to provide secure, scalable advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), the open standards platform “will help utilities accelerate adoption and simplify deployment of smart grid solutions, reduce the total cost of ownership of these systems, and unleash innovation for smart grid applications and technologies in the marketplace,” according to a joint press release.
Based on an open, multi-service IPv6 architecture, the AMI platform provides pervasive monitoring and control of energy distribution networks that enable the introduction of new smart grid and home network features for both utilities and customers, the partners explain. The platform’s key components include the Cisco 1000 Series Connected Grid Router (CGR), Cisco Network Management System (NMS), and Itron’s OpenWay Reporting System, IPv6-enabled meters and the OpenWay Collection Engine.
Worldwide smart grid systems and applications revenue totaled $16 billion in 2010, a figure that’s forecast to balloon to $155 billion by 2018, according to recent research and analysis from Memoori Business Intelligence.
Cisco and Itron have been working to develop an open yet secure, interoperable platform to support electricity grid modernization since forming a strategic alliance in September, 2010. The goal was to deliver an AMI platform capable of “delivering ‘plug and play’ interoperability of smart grid services and applications and devices, as well as freedom from vendor-specific, proprietary integration requirements.”
“Together, Itron and Cisco are setting the stage for the industry. We are transforming the traditional purpose-built, meter-centric AMI solution into an enterprise-class architecture featuring robust network management, standardized security and quality of service,” Philip Mezey, Itron president and COO of Energy. “It is with this technology that we are able to build the smartest grids in the world.”
Vancouver’s BC Hydro will be the first to put the Cisco-Itron AMI platform to use in a commercial, enterprise environment. Serving more than 1.8 million customers throughout British Columbia, installation of the platform is to begin in March. Cicso’s Connected Grid Router will be installed in the field to provide secure communications for routing of critical data from Itron’s IPv6 smart meters and other grid-connected devices over an IPv6 RF (Radio Frequency) mesh network.
BC Hydro expects that the smart grid system will enable it to keep a lid on customers’ utility bills by yielding savings of $1.6 billion over its expected 20-year life. “The ability to leverage our infrastructure with Itron’s smart grid solution and Cisco’s Connected Grid networking and security capabilities is a great stepping stone into smart grid. We will be able to leverage it for years to come,” said Gary Murphy, chief project officer for BC Hydro’s Smart Metering Program.
Cisco and Itron yesterday announced the launch of their next-generation smart grid platform. Designed to provide secure, scalable advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), the open standards platform “will help utilities accelerate adoption and simplify deployment of smart grid solutions, reduce the total cost of ownership of these systems, and unleash innovation for smart grid applications and technologies in the marketplace,” according to a joint press release.
