MISSION CRITICAL: A GROWING DEPENDENCE ON COMMUNICATIONS INFRASTRUCTURE IS PUSHING WIRELESS MAINTENANCE TO THE FOREFRONT

摘要

Charles Plummer, director of communications infrastructure for Power System Engineering, Inc., says the growing dependence on communications infrastructure for smart grid tools, such as advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), requires a new emphasis on periodic maintenance.Plummer, who authored a recent Cooperative Research Network (CRN) TechSurveillance report titled "Maintenance of Wireless AMI Communications Equipment," says with the advance of AMI and other smart grid systems, communications infrastructure has become mission critical."I think that the utility executive staffs have realized that the maintenance for these systems is different than what they experienced in the past," Plummer says. "This report was created to discuss the staffing and expertise needs to maintain a fixed wireless AMI system so that these costs could be incorporated in the overall system costs."In just the last 10 years, AMI systems have evolved from sending a meter reading maybe once a week to the extreme demands of real-time smart grid data. If communications systems are rising to the level of being labeledmission critical, Plummer maintains this infrastructure deserves a strategically planned maintenance program.