Cisco to FCC: 5 Suggestions for the Smart Grid

The Federal Communications Commission plans to make recommendations in the National Broadband Plan that should help shape the fledgling smart grid industry. Interested parties have been submitting their comments over the past few weeks, and this week network infrastructure giant Cisco submitted its comments to the FCC, with a couple of key suggestions.

Here are five suggestions that Cisco has for the FCC when it comes to the smart grid:

1. Broadband Smart Grid: Cisco writes "not only will the new smart grid largely depend upon broadband technologies, but the extension of broadband to all end users is critical to delivering on the power and promise of a broadband-enabled electric system. We will not be able to achieve the full effect of a smart grid without a robust broadband network that connects the supply side with the demand side of the electric industry ubiquitously."
2. No Additional Spectrum for Utilities: Cisco says "it appears that advanced wireless technology platforms available today or in the near future are likely to have sufficient bandwidth and quality-of-service to support evolving smart grid needs for the foreseeable future. Thus, additional spectrum is not needed to deploy technology that is unique or specific to smart grid applications, per se."
3. Interference Concerns Misplaced: The 802.11 [WiFi] standard is a 'contention-based' protocol, which means that, if packets are missed as a result of simultaneous use of a channel by different devices, they are simply requested by the receiving device and re-sent. Thus, an increase in simultaneous users does not fundamentally affect the reliability of the data transfer.
4. Look to the IT Industry for Smart Grid Security: Concerns over security for the smart grid are real, but that the industry and regulators should look to the companies that have already built security applications and tools based on Internet Protocol.
5. There's Still A Regulatory Incentive Problem: Despite all the standards work done by NIST, and the injection of the $4 billion in smart grid stimulus funds, Cisco says there's still a fundamental issue with how to incentivize utilities to sell less electricity. Specifically Cisco asks the National Broadband Plan to ask the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency to update a report on a rolling basis that looks at the most successful cost recovery practices and efficiency projects. Cisco says: "The real work of deploying a smart grid will come from 'smart regulation' and even 'smarter deregulation' by state utility commissions."