Energy

Skyrocketing energy costs have put a spotlight on the energy industry — from the ways utilities produce and manage energy to how businesses and individuals consume it. Government regulation is mandating efficiency and environmental policies and providing economic incentives for utilities who integrate renewable energy into their portfolio. The adoption of various demand response technologies at the consumer level will lead to a greater expectation of transparency and interaction between the end user and their energy supplier. All industry participants are seeking more efficient ways to operate their businesses and manage residential costs.

The most forward-thinking utilities are exploring better ways to manage the power grid to help them quickly identify and resolve power transmission issues. Some are beginning to integrate smart meters, hoping to reduce labor costs through AMR (Automated Meter Reading). Others are conducting pilots to evaluate AMI (Automated Meter Infrastructure), which enables demand response, load control and more advanced smart meter communication.

However, existing legacy systems are still in place, and many utilities feel they're running their businesses more like telecommunications carriers than utilities, as they juggle multiple networks and struggle to integrate a myriad of applications. Historically, this was the only option available if a utility wanted to maintain system security and control. It worked, but at a high cost.

The most critically limiting factor is that utilities can't manage what they can't see — without real-time information, grid operators are essentially flying blind. When power goes down and customers start calling, expensive truck rolls are incurred as engineers are dispatched in an effort to detect the exact cause and location of the outage.

Examples of the challenges faced by utilities are abundant. The bottom line is this: the next generation architecture for the Smart Grid must provide end-to-end transparency and intelligence. An interactive flow of data at every node will optimize decisions made by both utilities and consumers about energy delivery and usage.

But Smart Grid efficiencies are elusive without a smart wireless network partner on the team. SkyTel is a unique network carrier...one-of-a-kind actually. We operate a nationwide, data-only wireless platform, uniquely designed to enable the evolving smart grid paradigm, driving transformational change in how we live, work and communicate.

The New Smart Grid Paradigm

Here's what we hear utilities telling us they need in today's energy environment:

This is what they've told us they don't want — the headache and the headcount that comes with managing a network. And they would prefer to avoid using a public broadband network focused on high-revenue consumer applications that are voice and media intensive and relegate their traffic to a second class status.

SkyTel's Network-On-Demand Communication Platform

SkyTel's wireless communication platform will transform how energy companies do business. Our open standard network topology provides a level of transparency and coverage that has previously only been associated with the private network model. It is fully scalable not only for today's smart grid investments, but will support Smart Grid requirements far into the future.

SkyTel combines the benefits of a large, nationwide wireless carrier with the control, security and transparency of a private network, individually tailored to each utility's needs.