Duke Energy, the third largest electric utility in the United States, has announced that it will be working with Cisco Systems to develop its smart grid network.  The power company supplies energy for 11 million customers.  

Cisco will assist Duke Energy in a three-year project, according to the announcement made on June 9.  Duke wants to bring its aging conventional power grid infrastructure into the digital age with a cutting-edge system.  

Communications between Duke and its customers will be possible for the first time.  The utility will also be able to use and distribute electricity much more efficiently while increasing system reliability.  Power outages will be detected instantaneously in the new system and renewable energy sources will be integrated as well.

Cisco’s latest contract is the networking giant’s latest effort to position itself as a leading provider of smart grid solutions for utilities and their customers.  The company first unveiled its smart grid products last month.  In April, Cisco was named as a partner for a $200 million municipal smart grid project in Miami, Florida that could serve as a blueprint for other American cities.

Cisco launched a cleantech initiative in May that outlined the company’s plans to enter the smart grid industry in a big way.  The company believes that industry will be worth $100 billion over the next five years and that it can claim about $1 billion of that figure annually.

Smart grid technology isn’t a great leap for the company according to Inbar Lasser-Raab, senior director of network systems at the company.  “The technology exists from when we built IP networks, so we’re taking technology in-house to create a new physical product that would have our security capabilities, our routing and switching capabilities, as well as new standards to support the smart grid.”

According to Todd Arnold, senior vice president for smart grid and customer systems at Duke Energy, the partnership with Cisco is very much aligned with Duke’s strategy.  “Our goal is to rapidly transform the way electricity is delivered to, and used by, the 11 million people we serve in five states,” he said.

Arnold added that the two firms will develop an end-to-end smart grid solution based upon Internet protocol (IP) that will allow for new technologies to be easily integrated when they are discovered in the future.  The result is a highly adaptable and highly scalable solution.

Duke and Cisco will also collaborate on developing and installing energy management devices for the home so customers can gain control over how they use electricity.  The home devices will provide the critical connection between customer and utility company.

Duke Energy plans to install some 700,000 electric smart meters and 450,000 gas smart meters in a five year project scheduled to begin in Ohio later this year.  Duke is also seeking approval from Indiana’s Utility Regulatory Commission in order to begin another massive smart meter installation there involving 800,000 smart meters.

Smart grid plans are in the works for Kentucky, North Carolina, and South Carolina also.  A deployment of 70,000 smart electric meters and 40,000 smart gas meters has already begun in parts of North Carolina, South Carolina, and the Cincinnati, Ohio region.

Cisco Systems, Inc.
170 West Tasman Dr.
San Jose, CA 95134
http://www.cisco.com

Duke Energy
526 South Church Street
Charlotte, NC 28202
http://www.duke-energy.com


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