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CXO Standpaoint<br />
assets and data interacting in real time and with less human<br />
intervention to respond to changing grid conditions. This<br />
degree of interoperability and automation has been elusive<br />
or cost-prohibitive thus far for the low-voltage level of the<br />
network.<br />
·<br />
Most of these challenges are technology-centered, while<br />
some are cultural and organizational, but the upside is that<br />
these challenges are being solved. Information technology<br />
and operational technology are converging rapidly in the<br />
utility and energy space to create a new strategic and<br />
operational reality. This comes none too soon in light of<br />
significant business challenges utilities worldwide are<br />
facing as well as the economic and environmental<br />
challenges we all face.<br />
Led by companies such as Cisco and Itron, a growing<br />
ecosystem of smart grid technology providers have<br />
collaborated to evolve network architecture so that utility<br />
field area networks look and behave much more like<br />
enterprise IT networks. <strong>Solution</strong> providers are also<br />
introducing more distributed intelligence to grid operations<br />
that enable grid assets and devices that are currently<br />
“siloed” to work in concert with one another. In addition,<br />
the available value stream of this network infrastructure<br />
investment is broadening by connecting to emerging<br />
markets and applications such as smart cities and the<br />
Internet of Things (IoT).<br />
<strong>The</strong> heavy lifting really began four years ago when Itron<br />
and Cisco announced an agreement to work together to<br />
re-architect Itron’s widely-deployed OpenWay smart grid<br />
network to IPv6 architecture from Cisco. This joint<br />
development effort, undertaken by the industry leaders in<br />
utility automation and networking, was a watershed effort<br />
in the industry. <strong>The</strong> smart metering network became a<br />
multi-application smart grid and smart city network,<br />
broadening significantly its usefulness and value. A growing<br />
ecosystem of leading smart grid technology providers can<br />
now build to a common reference architecture through the<br />
Connected Grid Cisco Developer Network to accelerate<br />
adoption and spark innovation.<br />
But standards-based, multi-application network architecture<br />
by itself was not enough to address all those challenges.<br />
Itron believes that for the smart grid to deliver on its<br />
promised value, data analysis and action must take place<br />
where it makes most sense–increasingly at the edge of the<br />
network rather than in the utility back office. That’s the<br />
whole idea behind ITRON RIVA, a new distributed<br />
intelligence and advanced communication platform the<br />
company launched this fall.<br />
Distributing intelligence across the network allows us to<br />
economically solve utility problems that couldn’t be<br />
feasibly solved before, greatly increasing the value and<br />
timeliness of smart grid analytic applications as well as the<br />
utilization of network capacity. Specifically, these<br />
development efforts yield a new and common set of<br />
technology attributes for meters, grid sensors and other<br />
types of intelligent devices, whether they come from Itron<br />
or third-party partners who embed the technology or build<br />
to the standard.<br />
35<br />
November 2016