Jeff St. John 06 16 09, 7:04 PM

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Current Group, Qwest Look to DSL for Smart Grid Communications

Qwest Communications has millions of customers for its high-speed DSL Internet service. Current Group wants a fast and secure way to carry data to what it hopes will be millions of customers connected to future utility smart grids.

So it makes sense that the two companies would partner up, as they announced they were Tuesday. The idea is to get other utilities interested in a partnership they said they've tested out in the SmartGridCity demonstration project being done by utility Xcel Energy in Boulder, Colo.

That could allow Current, which makes software and sensors for both the distribution grid and end-users of electricity, to carry data over Qwest's Internet protocol-based networks. The idea is to put hardened Qwest modems atop utility poles and hook them to Current sensors via Ethernet cable, Brendan Herron, Current's vice president of corporate development and strategy, said.

The partnership is aimed at working where Qwest already has networks, Herron said, but Current, which also is working with Texas utility Oncor and Iberdrola in Spain, said it's looking at other partners with similar networks to work with in other areas.

Chalk it up as yet another way to transport smart grid data between utilities and their customers. A great debate going on among utilities is whether to build their own networks for the flood of data to come from smart meters, distribution sensors and other parts of the smart grid, or to use others' networks.

Many utilities, such as Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison, are building their own through wireless mesh networks embedded in smart meters by vendors such as Silver Spring Networks and Trilliant or by meter makers themselves (see RF Mesh, ZigBee Top North American Utilities' Smart Meter Wish Lists).

But others are looking to cellular networks, a popular way of carrying smart meter data in Europe. Partnerships including those between SmartSynch and AT&T and between Echelon and T-Mobile, are hoping to popularize that solution in the United States (see Echelon, T-Mobile Team on Smart Meter Contracts and Your Electrical Meter Becomes a Cellphone).

Grid Net is hoping its WiMax-enabled smart meters will find traction with utilities, either through building their own networks or using the WiMax network being built by a Sprint-Clearwire partnership in the United States (see GE Offers WiMax Smart Meter Solution).

And then there are companies with networks deployed for other reasons getting into the game of offering their services for utilities (see Tropos: WiFi for the Smart Grid and Hughes Offers Utility Communications).

In some cases, acquisitions can put both options under one roof, as with Trilliant buying WiFi-based communications provider SkyPilot last month (see Trilliant buys SkyPilot for End-to-End Smart Grid Communications).

There's even a technology that used to be Current Group's focus, before it shifted to its smart grid efforts – broadband over powerline. The low-bandwidth technology failed as a means for utilities to bring entertainment to customers' homes, but is seeing a bit of a resurgence in projects including one by IBM and International Broadband Electric Communications (see Broadband Over Powerline Brings Smart Grid to Rural Areas).

Using DSL to bring smart grid services to people's homes does carry some drawbacks – namely, the fact that not everyone has a DSL connection. That may not sit well with regulators that want utilities to bring services to all their customers, not just the connected ones, analysts note (see A Broadband Smart Grid?).