By Livia Rosu, Marketing Chair at HomeGrid Forum
As the utilities sector faces increasing appetite for higher levels of clean, renewable energy with the advancement of Smart Grids, worldwide adoption of Electric Vehicles (EVs) and growing numbers of Smart Cities, it is clear that innovation is needed to help handle demand. With the market set to grow to a value worth US $61.3 billion by 2023 globally (according to global research firm MarketsandMarkets), it is anticipated that G.hn technology will make a huge impact.
HomeGrid Forum’s Chair of the Contributions Working Group, Marcos Martinez, recently unveiled the alliance’s latest work on advancing G.hn for Industrial and Smart Grid applications around the world at the virtual 24th IEEE International Symposium on Power Line Communications (ISPLC).
The latest ITU-T roadmap shared with the conference, sets out clearly the role of G.hn for the Smart Grid and Industrial evolution and the work for adapting G.996x to these specific scenarios, with an increased focus on supporting longer distances, noisier environments, larger number of nodes and 802.1X authentication frameworks. The Forum and its members have a huge role to play in the future success of these deployments to ensure complete interoperability, high-performance and compliance between hundreds of devices in use within the industry.
Over the years we have witnessed the growth of G.hn’s position as the most reliable and versatile backbone for home networking, with its ability to work across any pre-existing wires such as power line, coax and twisted pairs. This prominent reputation has seen the innovative technology being applied recently to a multitude of additional sectors looking to provide high-quality, reliable connectivity that easily handles large volumes of traffic with the required security necessary for these new applications.
Earlier this year major utility provider E.ON joined the HomeGrid Forum to further drive advances of G.hn technology for the energy sector, while system vendors are developing Smart Meter Gateways with G.hn technology for connecting energy services central offices with the smart meters located in the users homes. The G.hn core enables seamless facilitation of secure, real-time data allowing for energy usage to be monitored accurately – offering new opportunities for service providers to advance and develop new streams of revenue in line with customer demands.
The progress made by HomeGrid Forum will provide essential guidance to system vendors and utilities providers on how to define, configure and deploy network infrastructure devices that incorporate G.hn technology into energy and Smart Grid applications, for which, many of our members are already developing innovative solutions.
At the IEEE ISPLC conference, devolo presented G.hn-based connectivity for Smart Meter Gateways and the implementation of security encryption mechanisms for G.hn access networks. Another member, UVAX, has developed a Smart City solution using G.hn technology to communicate across all streetlights in an outdoor lighting network, which allows the aggregation of thousands of sensors and IP devices in a single TCP/IP network managed and controlled remotely. Furthermore, another member, Teleconnect, presented its G.hn PLC-coupling module with MIMO operation for maximum performance and single wire-range power supply, designed for specific industrial applications.
Having received positive feedback on our members latest achievements, we are working on extending our world-renowned certification program to include Smart Grid Profile test plans from Q4 this year to support the industry players with their deployment roadmaps. For 2021, we expect to see the G.hn technology being implemented in a range of new devices including Smart Meter Gateways and data concentrators, LED streetlight platforms with Wi-Fi access points, video surveillance systems, smart traffic lights, sensor networks and EV charging stations. All of which will be controlled remotely, revolutionizing Smart Cities and enabling a whole new range of connectivity and energy services.
To find out more about HomeGrid Forum’s participation at the event, view the presentation here.