Nokia deploys world’s first 450 MHz private wireless LTE network PoC for power grid operators in Poland
Nokia today announced that leading Polish energy sector company PGE Systemy has chosen its 5G-ready, industrial-grade private wireless solution, following the successful trial of a 450 MHz PoC network in operation since April 2019. This marks a critical first step in evaluating the use of the 450 MHz band to support the wide-area operations of energy distribution system operators (DSOs) across Poland. PGE Systemy will use the PoC infrastructure to further develop its concept of a country-wide critical communications network. The final private wireless network will potentially support 15,000-20,000 private radio users over LTE/4.9G, as well as wireless connectivity for up to 14 million smart meters and 35,000 existing and future SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) connections.
The Polish Energy Ministry has chosen PGE Systemy to operate a 4.9G private wireless network on the 450 MHz band for critical and operational communications in its next-generation power grid. Favored by the energy sector across Europe, this band has excellent propagation properties, generous power levels, and there is strong availability of voice and data radios from a variety of equipment suppliers to support numerous applications. It is the band of choice for the support of machine-to-machine communications in the energy sector, including smart meters and wireless SCADA connections required, for example, with wind turbines. Future applications of the network may include distributed energy resource management and other digital smart grid applications.
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