Balancing Operations Today and Tomorrow With a Converged FAN

摘要

Managing an electrical power grid is all about balance. Electric utilities must balance the demand from residential and commercial customers with generation and supply processes and capacity 24/7/365. At the same time, they must balance reliability, performance and cost to meet operations objectives and customer expectations in real-time for always-on electricity. This ongoing balancing act is becoming more complex. In addition to managing operations to maintain that delicate balance, electric utilities face new challenges. Green environmental regulations, the growing adoption of disruptive energy technologies and changing electricity consumption patterns are pressuring utilities to modernize their distribution systems. Underpinning these modernization efforts is a shift in the communications technologies used in field area networks (FAN).