by Brianna Crandall — June 3, 2011—EPB, Chattanooga, Tennessee’s electric power distributor and communications provider, and Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs have teamed to ultimately provide energy management options to customers throughout the region by developing techniques to help analyze energy usage at “unprecedented” levels of detail.
EPB operates a high-speed optical fiber network—powered by Alcatel-Lucent’s gigabit passive optical network (GPON) technology—that offers broadband Internet access and other services to over 170,000 homes and businesses in metropolitan Chattanooga and surrounding rural areas.
EPB says it is currently building one of the most advanced and automated Smart Grid networks in the world. With widescale deployment of sensors and control devices at locations throughout the grid, coupled with pervasive broadband communications, the smart grid network will provide the utility the ability to measure, monitor and control their electricity distribution network in real time at fine levels of detail.
Alcatel-Lucent’s Bell Labs is developing advanced analytical techniques and tools to help EPB even further mine the wealth of information from smart meters, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems, and other data to help reduce electric service outages and to help EPB’s customers manage energy costs, manage power consumption during peak consumption periods, and improve operational efficiencies.
