pdvWireless and Department of Energy's NREL Announce Industry Advisory Board to Evaluate Private LTE for Next Generation Distribution Systems

WOODLAND PARK, N.J., April 30, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- pdvWireless, Inc., (PDV) (NASDAQ: PDVW) today announced the formation of an Industry Advisory Board (IAB) as a part of the company's ongoing project with the Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The DOE recently awarded the project "high-impact" status, which is given to projects that look to accelerate innovation in the private sector and develop scalable technologies that satisfy the goals of the U.S. DOE Grid Modernization Initiative (GMI).

The Industry Advisory Board is comprised of six leading utilities that provide service across 18 states, as well as former Chief Technology Officer of the DOE, Pete Tseronis. The six utility members of the IAB include: Consumers Energy, Duke Energy, Evergy, Eversource Energy, Holy Cross Energy and Xcel Energy. The newly formed board, together with members of PDV and NREL, held their first discussion earlier this month during a planning workshop for the project.  

Leveraging PDV's 900 MHz spectrum and NREL's Advanced Distribution Management Systems (ADMS) test facility, the two organizations are working to integrate a private LTE wireless communications system into NREL's testbed to analyze current and future use cases in a variety of network communications congestion scenarios that accurately represent real-life challenges faced by utility distribution systems. The analysis will be conducted at the Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) in Golden, Colorado, one of the preeminent facilities in the National Laboratory complex. 

As an independent team of industry experts, the IAB will provide critical utility insight and advice on the study and will share guidance on use case selection. IAB members will also help define test scenarios that reflect the respective member's environment, as well as have full involvement in planned laboratory demonstrations of the combined LTE network and ADMS Testbed system at the ESIF.

"We are proud to be collaborating with the DOE and members of the IAB as we collectively work to address the growing critical needs of our nation's utilities communications networks," said Mike Brozek, Senior Vice President of Technology for pdvWireless.  "PDV is committed to demonstrating the benefits that 900 MHz based private LTE networks will provide when solving for current and future utility use case needs," Brozek added.

"The insights and guidance from the members of the Industry Advisory Board will play an important role in simulating and evaluating the performance of telecommunications in the specific use cases that this project hopes to validate," said Barry Mather, Group Manager of Integrated Devices and Systems at NREL. "We look forward to working with PDV and the IAB in understanding the full potential of benefits that private LTE networks bring to advanced energy management systems," Mather added.

"The DOE's national labs have a long history in leading innovation to impact important changes in our electric grids.  As the need for increased reliability and resiliency grows, the grid requires a robust communications network and this project will look to develop a solution to that," Pete Tseronis, IAB member and former CTO of the Department of Energy commented. "The NREL and PDV partnership represents a model for success as they work to develop scalable technologies for critical utility communications," Tseronis added.

NREL and PDV are expected to present initial outcomes from the project with the U.S. Department of Energy during a meeting currently scheduled for September 2019.

About pdvWireless, Inc.

pdvWireless, Inc. is focused on developing and offering solutions that leverage its spectrum assets for the deployment of next generation private broadband networks designed to meet the needs of critical infrastructure and enterprise customers. We are the largest holder of licensed nationwide spectrum in the 900 MHz spectrum band throughout the contiguous United States, plus Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico. On average, we hold approximately 60% of the channels in the Part 90 portion of the 900 MHz band in the top 20 metropolitan market areas in the United States. We are currently pursuing a regulatory proceeding at the Federal Communications Commission that seeks to modernize and realign a portion of the 900 MHz band to increase its usability and capacity and accommodate the future deployment of broadband technologies and services. At the same time, we are expecting to enable private broadband network solutions, leveraging our spectrum, that address the growing and unmet needs of our targeted critical infrastructure and enterprise customers. Our Chairman, Brian McAuley, and CEO, Morgan O'Brien, were the co-founders of Nextel Communications and have over 60 years of combined experience in telecom operations and successfully developing regulatory driven spectrum initiatives to address the unmet wireless communications needs of businesses. pdvWireless is headquartered in Woodland Park, New Jersey.

Forward-Looking Statements

Any statements contained in this press release that do not describe historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined under the Federal securities laws. Any forward-looking statements contained herein are based on the Company's current expectations but are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause its actual future results to differ materially from its current expectations or those implied by the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: (i) the Company's spectrum initiatives, including its FCC proceedings aimed at modernizing and realigning the 900 MHz spectrum band to increase its usability and capacity, which contemplates the utilization of such spectrum for the future deployment of broadband technologies and services, may not be successful on a timely basis or at all, and may continue to require significant time and attention from its senior management team and the expenditure of significant resources; (ii) the Company may not be successful in identifying, developing and commercializing network and mobile communication solutions utilizing its current and future spectrum and commercially available technologies; (iii) the Company has had net losses each year since its inception and may not achieve or maintain profitability in the future; (iv) the Company's ability to control the costs and to achieve the expected operational benefits and long- term cost savings of its restructuring plans, including the transfer of its TeamConnect and pdvConnect businesses;  (v) the wireless communications industry is highly competitive and the Company may not be able to compete successfully; and (vi) government regulation could adversely affect the Company's business and prospects. These and other factors that may affect the Company's future results of operations are identified and described in more detail in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), including its Annual Report on Form 10-K/A for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2018, filed with the SEC on August 9, 2018. Modifications to those factors and/or additional factors are described in the Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended December 31, 2018, filed with the SEC on February 8, 2019. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Except as required by applicable law, the Company does not intend to update any of the forward-looking statements to conform these statements to actual results, later events or circumstances or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Contacts

Natasha Vecchiarelli 
Director of Corporate Communications  
pdvWireless, Inc. 
973-531-4397  
[email protected]

Phil Sgro
Raffetto Herman Strategic Communications
202-585-0210
[email protected]

SOURCE pdvWireless

Related Links

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