PLC for SMARTER GRIDS

PLC for
SMARTER
GRIDS
THE KEY ROLE OF POWER LINE COMMUNICATION
FOR GRID OPERATORS
EVOLUTION OF THE HISTORIC GRID
The electric network has to grow beyond the historic role for which it has been built.
It must now take renewable and decentralized energy sources (wind farms, photovoltaic…) into
account, as well as the new uses of electricity (electrical vehicles, electricity storage…).The
operator has to adapt to optimize the grid, adopt a more pro-active management to guarantee
quality of service, and comply with the new regulations (deployment of smart metering, CO2 reduction…).
TODAY NEW
RESOURCES
TOMORROW
NEW USES
THE COMMUNICATION NETWORK
These new constraints will grow over time; they call for a chain made of a myriad of sensors, control and
communication components, providing the operator with a global view, I real time of their grid. The data collected
can then be processed and necessary actions undertaken pro-actively to guarantee the expected quality of
service. Different communication solutions are possible, wired or wireless. PLC offers the operator the indisputable
advantage of using their own electric network for communications support, with the obvious gains in terms of
savings, security and reliability.
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PLC
CARRYING ELECTRICITY
@
AND INFORMATION
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NEXANS IN THE ENERGY NETWORK
VALUE CHAIN
With Energy as its core business, Nexans has focused on PLC, which uses the electric network itself as the
communication channel, from the meter to the primary sub-station, ie on the LV as well as on the MV network.
Building on this expertise, Nexans is acquiring new capabilities, which put us at the interface of electricity,
electronics, telecoms and software; from this fusion of technologies certain key components of tomorrow's network
are emerging : couplers, sensors… which will be an integral part of our comprehensive PLC solutions, bring
together the different players in this new field, working in partnership to deliver the best possible service for our
customers, the distribution grid operators.
POWER INFRASTRUCTURE LAYER
COMMUNICATION LAYER
@
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LAYER
Nexans, worldwide expert in the cable industry, offers an extensive range of cables and cabling solutions. The Group
addresses a wide series of market segments: from energy and telecom networks to energy resources (wind turbines,
photovoltaic, oil and gas or mining…) to transportation (shipbuilding, aerospace, automotive and automation,
railways). Nexans is an innovative and responsible industrial company, the Group employs 25,000 people worldwide
and had sales in 2011 of 7 billion Euros.
For more information, please consult : www.nexans.com
Press contact : [email protected]