You tend to hear a lot of buzz about the smart grid space within the United States, and how its evolution is taking a toll on utilities, companies and the general economy.

 

While much advancement is being made locally, I came across an article that discussed some smart grid movements in Austria and – seeing as how my coverage normally stays within the U.S. borders – I was intrigued.

 

RuggedCom Inc., a networking solutions manufacturer, has partnered with Kapsch BusinessCom, an Austrian system integrator for telecom and network enterprise solutions, to deliver a WiMax network for a smart grid application for an Austrian electric power company.

 

“We see an increasing number of electric utilities around the world looking at using WiMAX (News - Alert) for multiple applications as part of their Smart Grid solution,” said Elik Jaeger, vice president of RuggedWIRELESS.

 

DI Gerhard Schrott, head of Network Solutions (News - Alert) at Kapsch said that, unlike many of its service provider customers, the electric power company wanted to use power substations as a base station site.

 

Based on RuggedCom’s broadband wireless products, it will extend the IP and Ethernet network connectivity as well as reduce cost over long distances through the technology. 

“We were looking for a partner capable of deploying a solution that was open standards based but also could meet the environmental requirements of an electric power application,” Schrott said. “RuggedMAX proved to be the ideal choice for this network.”

According to Jaeger, RuggedWIRELESS believes that a reliable utility grade communications infrastructure is critical to creating a reliable smart grid implementation. 

“Our award winning, field proven, substation hardened communications technology coupled with our experience with over 700 utilities around the world allows us to offer a comprehensive communications solution of both wireline and wireless products capable of being the communications backbone of any smart grid,” Jaeger said. “We call our smart grid communications offering RuggedGRID.”

The network roll out began in November of 2009 and will cover some 300 base station sites over the next three years.