On April 7, 2011, United States electric power Research Institute published their report on the costs and benefits of smart grid. The report estimated that for full implementation of modern electric power systems in United States, its smart grid cost would be between $ 338 billion to $ 476 billion, and its revenue would reach $ 1.3 trillion to $ 2 trillion. In addition, United States launched a large-scale substation facilities (LPT) renovation plan to deal with the vulnerability of the power grid, which occupies an important proportion of communication and control requirements.

In Europe, smart grid development is mainly led by the EU which makes the overall goals and strategy, and provides a policy and funding support. Promoting sustainable development, reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission in power grid are Europe’s mostly considered aspects. European smart grid goal supports renewable and flexible access of distributed energy, to provide customers with interactive facilities such as information exchange. The EU plans to achieve the target of 20% with clean energy and renewable energy consumption by 2020, and complete the power exchange integration in the whole Europe region. During the period from 2010 to 2018, a total investment of about € 2 billion had been proposed for smart grid.

As one of the leaders in enterprise network construction and IT services provision, ZTE launched its future plan for end-to-end smart grid broadband solution that would accelerate the revolution of intelligence in global power industry.

ZTE smart broadband solutions in power industry, focuses on helping power companies build the information infrastructure that consists of information collection (such as smart meters, video surveillance, automated OA), information transmission (transmission communication network, dispatching and communication network, internal Office information, and so on) and information storage (data center solutions) during smart grid construction.

According to ZTE’s understanding of power industry, the core service in power companies is scheduling, and usage of existing electricity resources to satisfy the maximum demands of customers. ZTE smart broadband solution can solve the problems by the use of information technology in electric power industry. Through terminal consumption data collection, ultra-band network transmission, and power scheduling data collection, historical data storage, it would be easier to analyze the ongoing conditions and status. It would assist the power companies to make intelligent decisions for power scheduling.

ZTE smart broadband solution for power industry consists of 7 sub-solutions:

• Power Transmission Information Network:

Stepping into long distance 100G era, as one of leaders in optical transmission field, ZTE builds fixed and mobile interactive optical transport backbones all over the world from professional design to final operation assistant by its optical transmission equipments ZXMP/ZXONE series.

• Power Dispatching Information Network:

As the neural nodes of core dispatching services, ZTE data communication network equipments with high performance and excellent reliability can provide various interfaces and modules to connect legacy and IP-based industrial controllers. Moreover, ZTE enterprise and carrier level data network construction experience with ZTE ZXR10 series can sustain the ordeal in power industry. In addition, ZXA10 PON-based electric MDU can meet severe requirements in EMC and temperature.

• Enterprise Office Automation System:

IT evolution brings rich kinds of applications covering the entire office scenarios. Years of cooperation with enterprises, deployed services and solutions have enhanced ZTE’s customer’s efficiency. ZTE UC, VCS, cloud terminals working with ZTE LAN switches, modernize the traditional IT services for enterprise staff and personal usage providing convenient and colorful e-office environment.

• Data Center:

Usually, the OPEX is the key indicator of whether data center construction is successful. ZTE recommends green, high performance, easy maintenance for its modular data center solution. ZTE’s container and modular data center, shorten construction time and lower the PUE that provides an edge to its customers in competitive landscape.

• Smart Metering:

Following international DLMS/COSEM and STS standards of smart metering, ZTE has already got a portfolio for smart meters and control systems. With ZTE ZX series meters and MDMS/HES (Meter Data Management System/Head-End System), ZTE can provide an E2E solution to its customers.

• Network Security:

As a leader of network equipment suppliers, ZTE network security equipments derived from ZTE data communication devices have strong performance for Layer 2-7 threats mitigation. Deploying ZTE ZXSEC series UTM at edge of domain, the enterprises can get the round-the-clock protection and security.

• Substation video surveillance:

Small and unattended substations have been accepted by several power companies as it is convenient and saves manpower resources – but it raises a new question about management. ZTE solves the issue by building remote video surveillance system and power & environment monitoring system in substation. By ZTE ViewEye system, High definition IP cameras can provide a full view of whole substation without blind zones. Precise power and environment sensors can record the real time parameters to ensure system’s smooth operation.

More than 80 customers in 60 countries have chosen ZTE as their strategy partner in power corporations, such as ZESCO in Zambia, CADAFE in Venezuela, Internexa in Peru, and so on. Besides strong cooperation in traditional services, ZTE aims to help its customer discover new services opening new revenue streams, like network bandwidth rent out, IDC rent out, remote metering, remote surveillance, etc. ZTE helped ZESCO become a Carrier’s Carrier by network bandwidth rent out – helping ZESCO get a healthy reward correspondingly.