PRIVATE FAN (Field Area Network) FOR NEXT GENERATION SMART GRIDS

Abstract

An Integrated Communications Infrastructure is a foundational component of any Smart Grid strategy and requires solutions that not only support legacy services, but evolve to enable a wide variety of useful applications.A Field Area Network (FAN) is a 21st-century solution that takes visibility and control deep into the distribution grid’s middle and last miles. It extends the smart grid in an economical fashion, using a variety of technologies working together seamlessly to create a cost-effective connection to growing numbers of data collection points.4G LTE is a cutting-edge wireless technology that can be well-adapted to a FAN. It provides highly scalable broadband connectivity for both fixed and mobile applications and allows you to converge your data needs on to a single network technology.Elektro Gorenjska d.d. (EG) started a pilot project of 4G LTE private FAN (pLTE). With vast experience in its existing private WiMAX broadband wireless access network analyses of almost all possible telecommunication requirements of Smart Grid was foreseen. Including the cyber security as inseparable part of modern Smart Grids.