S&C Electric Company Forms New Communications Systems Business

CHICAGO, March 18 /PRNewswire/ -- As utilities work to implement a smart grid, one of the biggest challenges they must address is the development and deployment of a reliable communication systems capable of handling multiple applications, each having diverse requirements.  S&C Electric Company, a Smart Grid leader shaping the future of reliable electrical delivery, recognized this need and today announced the creation of its new Communications Systems business.

The industry needs modern, flexible and yet highly reliable communications systems to address the complex needs of the 21st century electric grid. In fact, a recent study conducted by Transmission & Distribution World and sponsored by S&C found that 81 percent of participating industry professionals identified communications as the most important technology needed to deliver the benefits promised by the smart grid.

S&C, which has extensive experience in developing and deploying communication systems for distribution automation applications, has recognized a need to continue advancing communications solutions in order to implement a Smart Grid.

"Successful distribution automation places stringent demands on communications networks," said John Estey, President and CEO of S&C Electric Company. "As we worked to advance self-healing distribution systems, we realized there wasn't a communications solution on the market that could adequately meet the latency, bandwidth, and reliability requirements for advanced distribution automation, so we began work to develop new solutions."

S&C's SpeedNet™ Radios, which provide benchmark performance for automation and control applications, were introduced in 2009 to address the communication requirements for self-healing distribution grids. The formation of the Communication Systems business is the latest extension of S&C's capabilities in providing leading communications systems for the Smart Grid.  This business is comprised of seasoned experts in communications technology with decades of industry experience.  Leveraging partnerships and alliances, S&C's combined team of over 100 experts includes wireless R&D engineers, communications systems engineers, and application and field service experts.  

The depth of expertise in S&C's Communications System business, combined with S&C's nearly 100 years of experience in developing solutions for the electric grid, will allow S&C to successfully address both the complex requirements of electric delivery as well as the very different requirements of communications systems.  

"S&C's roots are in distribution automation, which presents the most complex set of system requirements to owners of electric grid communications systems," said Ken Monro, Vice President of S&C's Communication Systems Division. "By marrying a broad base of expertise in both distribution automation and communications technology, we at S&C are positioned to offer significant value to utilities working to integrate these and other technologies."

Modern power utilities are dealing with the convergence of many applications and protocols including advanced metering infrastructure, voice, data, SCADA and backbone systems for transport of the aggregated data.  Understanding how to build such networks is only one part of the challenge.  

"Our customers also need to manage and keep these networks secure. S&C can support this convergence of advanced electric grid functionality and next generation communications technologies like no stand-alone communications provider can," said Monro.

About S&C Electric Company

S&C, headquartered in Chicago, IL, is applying its heritage of innovation to address challenges facing the world's power grids and thus shaping the future of reliable electricity delivery. The mission of employee-owned S&C is to continually develop new solutions for electricity delivery, fostering the improved efficiency and reliability required for the intelligent grid. Additional information about S&C is available at www.sandc.com.

SOURCE S&C Electric Company