August 14, 2007

Silverman explains role of sensors for bridges

BEN's got labs in India, China working on apps

The bridge collapse in Minneapolis two weeks ago and the steam pipe explosion in New York City a few week prior put the aging US infrastructure of roads and utility equipment on center stage for the general public and press.

          Meanwhile the BPL industry has been talking about this un-sexy (for most people) topic for years because BPL technology sits in the "sweet spot" of having the ability to affordably deliver connectivity to everywhere that has power wires -- a ubiquitous network of wires that's already deployed.

          That connectivity can be low-tech if needed or deliver speeds that only fiber and some cutting edge microwave systems can compete with, depending on what's needed at each point in a deployment.

          Low tech? CenterPoint Energy in Houston is using "utility grade" BPL -- spacing the regenerators further apart and thus delivering less bandwidth but saving money by using less equipment.

          That approach could be used for other applications that don't need high-speed connectivity such as vibration sensors on bridges, high-tension utility towers, tunnels and anywhere else that needs careful monitoring.

          Any number sensors, monitors and controls could be quickly, affordably and easily on utility and municipal infrastructure.

          Anywhere that's got power wires connected can be hooked up almost instantly -- it's truly plug-n-play -- and anywhere that's not wired for power could be at far lower cost than sending out virtually any other kind of wire or wireless network.

          Ask any electrician.

          Can ConEd wire steam pipes?

          Consolidated Edison owns and runs the steam pipes throughout New York City including the one that exploded causing much fear, some injuries and one death.

          The utility has lots of experience with automation and with BPL -- as has been reported at UPLC conferences by its Director of corporate Planning Tim Frost, who's utility co-chair of the trade association's board of directors.

          And BPL firm Ambient in late 2004 was the first firm to use DS2's 200 mbps BPL chips in action in a ConEd steam tunnel delivering telecom and data communications (BT, 11/8/04).

          Further use of BPL at ConEd -- for safety monitoring for example -- is under ongoing study, Frost told us Friday.

          Using BPL for monitoring and security including video surveillance was the point of a BPL project ConEd and Ambient did with the ...

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          Any plans to change the utility's steam pipe safety activity would have to wait for a metallurgy study of the pipe that ruptured, a utility representative told us, and that work is expected to be finished in October.

          Steam pipes may often represent an application that's not connected with existing electric wires.

          Even so, we believe few applications needing sensors and possibly automation are a challenge for BPL since most have power wires readily accessible.

          It's not 'pie in the sky'

          Another firm that's worked with NYSERDA on creating and testing "smart grid" applications is Broadband Energy Networks (BEN).

          The firm proved BPL works now to deliver connectivity for sensing and controls for safety and security.

          BEN sees smart grid as a BPL enabled grid -- and imagines its applications going way beyond the automated grid, CEO and Founder Larry Silverman told us Friday.

          His firm worked for several years with NYSERDA and others to create a real-world approach to smart grid -- at a time when many of the smart grid applications were power point bullets and not yet available.

          CenterPoint Energy hired the remote automation -- sensors and controls firm -- to help develop and create its BPL deployment and demonstration center in Houston.

          "In many of these areas such as tunnels and bridges and other things it's very difficult to get telemetry data out, in other words there often not a good phone connection -- either cellular or a line that you can tap into," explained Silverman.

          "You can't get into a cable network and in some cases, tunnels for example, there are very few ways that you can actually get signals in or out.

          "All of these have electricity running through them and in many cases its accessible and therefore you could use it as a way not only of powering sensors and other devices but also -- if its BPL enabled -- to bring the data back to some place where it can be acted upon."

          BEN was approached by a utility that wanted vibration sensors for its HV power line towers.

          Towers "appear to be one of the more vulnerable parts of the electric grid," noted Silverman.

          Tunnels are challenge

          Tunnels are vulnerable, too, whether for trains or mines, he added.

          For the reference of future readers of this story, at the time it was written, six miners were reportedly trapped in a Utah coal mine collapse and it wasn't known whether or not they were alive.

          That's not part of this story but clearly fed the attention on safety in recent public discourse.

          BEN some time ago received a call from a firm that had installed a phone system in a subway tunnel by stringing phone wire between emergency phones -- only to find rats were chewing the wire insulation.

          BEN suggested the firm install a BPL-enabled VOIP system using the conduit-encased power line feeding the lights.

          Air quality monitoring -- for safety and for pollution monitoring -- is a serious public concern, noted Silverman, and an application BEN provides.

          That can be crucial in a tunnel, mine or factory, he added.

          The utility industry generates about 40% of the greenhouse gases emitted in the US, said Silverman, and has a responsibility to address it.

          What's it going to cost?

          "The industry does have a feeling of sharing that responsibility" and sees a huge cost in addressing it -- "but its not large relative to the existing investment in infrastructure.

          "If you say that the value of the grid in round numbers is around a trillion dollars& then the idea that we as a country are going to invest another $200 billion or $300 billion into the grid isn't that absurd."

          That's especially true "when you realize that this is deferred maintenance -- money that has been saved by not providing some of the maintenance and infrastructure that we could have."

          That said, it's not sitting in a bank account somewhere.  Because of that people aren't really conscious of the fact that this is deferred maintenance," said Silverman.

          "The time has come" to make those investments on highways, bridges, the electric grid or the water system.

          "Tremendous investments were made in building the infrastructure in this country by our grandparents and our great grandparents and in some cases by our parents."

          Not a lot of investment has happened since the late 70s and early 80s -- and nothing rivaling what was done during the depression by the WPA (Work Projects Administration) in building roads and bridges, noted Silverman.

          That work carried through to the Truman years and the building of the national highway system "which opened up places like most of the Southwest which suddenly became accessible," he added.

          All this work trailed off in the 70s -- including highway, water and power systems.

          Since then the cities in the Southwest, for example, grew tremendously thanks to the infrastructure.

            Rebuilding takes years

          "You can't fix it all right away because it's too big a job and too much of an investment," noted Silverman.

          "The first thing that you can do is try to predict where you need to make the most critical investments.

          "That's a matter of inspection and monitoring."

          The bridge collapse in Minneapolis triggered a new effort in every state in the country to inspect bridges.

          Smart grid systems can provide the remote monitoring and telemetry needed to potentially predict a disaster and create an alert before it happens.

          Monitoring for hints that a grid element will soon fail is a new application but one based on well understood science as Frost explained at a UPLC conference back in 2005 (BT, 2/07/05).   

          QUOTE OF THE WEEK: If we are going to continue to defer the maintenance on the country's infrastructure -- or at least realize that we can't fix it all at once -- we need to start monitoring it so we can tell where the problems are and BPL is an ideal sort of data network for bringing back sensor data.

          Larry Silverman, CEO, Broadband Energy Networks

          A lot of sensor work has been done with very short range radios and even an MIT project called "smart dust" -- very tiny radio-enabled sensors, Silverman reminded.

          "In theory you can put a mesh of those together" and collect the data but that's never going to replace the ability to send the data miles through power lines, he added.

          But combining the technologies makes sense to Silverman.

          He envisions small battery-powered sensors collecting data and sending it to a collector at a BPL node, for example.

          BPL is proving effective for BEN at getting connectivity into areas where wireless has trouble reaching -- such as deployments in Europe where thick concrete walls block the signals in buildings.

          Grid components are often in metal enclosures that block wireless signals, he added.

          That said, press reports point to cell phones converging with WiFi, Silverman noted, and a combination of technologies is likely to prevail as networks develop.

          BPL makes a good backhaul for WiFi linking nodes or hubs to fiber, he added.

          Sensing and telemetry are usually narrow band applications and thus the BPL signal can travel long distances.

          BPL can be treated as a point to point solution or concentrated in an area without the need to saturate the entire grid if that's not needed, Silverman confirmed.

          This is not broadband

          Utilities tend to freak out at the thought of getting into broadband and municipalities can get bogged down in the controversy of whether or not they can legally serve it.

          Meanwhile, despite its name, BEN is not a broadband firm and Silverman's focus is on using BPL is as a PLC or power line carrier solution.

          He doesn't see BPL as a great answer for distributing video service to consumers.

          Silverman's calling has been to get machines talking to machines to accomplish tasks -- and building the platforms to support that work.

          That said, once a BPL network is in place, ramping it up to supply broadband services to consumers is doable by adding nodes, he reported.

          "Whether you'll ever get to the point where you'll match fiber is an open question but on the other hand, BPL is a great way of getting started and once you build your business case it may come to a point where it makes sense to put in fiber."

          Cities and utilities that deploy BPL service for smart grids and safety and security automation can start selling internet connectivity if they see a business case for it -- and once subscribers are helping fund the network it can grow in bandwidth and services as dictated by the business case.

          BPL makes a good backhaul for WiFi deployments -- as was shown in a Central Park deployment (BT, 6/06/06).

          Need more bandwidth in an emergency?

          A municipal deployment could possibly ramp up the power of the BPL system temporarily during an emergency when more communication is needed by emergency responders, noted Silverman, although the FCC hasn't taken a position on that.

          Ubiquity helps batteries

          BEN's work with grid monitoring -- sensing the temperature, voltage and current on transformers, is essentially the same thing as monitoring the air quality at the transformer and sensing the vibration on a nearby tower or the bridge where the transformer may be mounted.

          Water systems in the US are in trouble and while one wouldn't run an electric wire in a water pipe, power is found at the pumps and elsewhere nearby.

          Battery life is a consideration in telemetry systems -- the further you're trying to send data the more it taxes battery life.

          Using BPL as backhaul puts nodes near the data collectors thus taking advantage of the ubiquity of power lines and saving battery life.

          "It's distressing in some ways that BPL is moving so slowly here in the US because there are many parts of the world where it's getting much better penetration," said Silverman.

          He hears Europe is slowing down -- but the hotel he stayed at in the Hong Kong recently used BPL to supply internet to the room, he added.

          Silverman cited deployments we've reported in Indonesia, the Philippines, Pakistan and Egypt -- often driven by demand for voice service.

          He sees VOIP as the "top of the pyramid" of applications BPL does well delivering over an access network.

          BEN's working on it

          Silverman told us to stay tuned for announcements on applications being developed at BEN-affiliated labs in China and India.

          He took a hiatus from work at his firm after an investment we reported in May of 2006 led to a restructuring of operations at BEN (BT, 5/09/06).

          Silverman is back and rested and the smart grid application supply chain is gearing up for growth.

          Link: [www.broadbandenergynetworks.com]