Expeto has partnered with Portland General Electric (PGE), a regional electric utility with over two-million customers across 4,000 square miles of service territory, to create an innovation lab with technology leaders and industry innovators. Called the Connected Utility Lab, the members – including Google, Intel, the 5G Open Innovation Lab (5G OIL) and InnovationForce – have joined forces to drive PGE’s modernization efforts and support their industry-leading commitment to decarbonize the grid.
By harnessing the speed, reach and scale of 5G, the Connected Utility Lab is providing PGE with a secure and controllable environment to explore new technologies, use cases and edge devices that will be key enablers to meet PGE’s commitment of reducing their GHG-emissions by 80% by 2030 in the power served to residential customers. At the same time, the Connected Utility Lab is also testing and deploying use cases that support PGE’s goals to mitigate the growing effects of wildfires, connect workers to improve safety in the field and electrify transportation to support a cleaner, greener future.
Through collaborating with a cohort of innovative partners, PGE is tapping into a broad ecosystem of technologies to advance these time-sensitive efforts at a rapid rate. As Larry Bekkedahl, Senior VP, Advanced Energy Delivery, PGE, explained, “Innovation is moving so much faster today than where it ever has in the history of mankind. We are able to bring parties together and make a real difference quickly by having this connected lab.”
In order to drive these initiatives, PGE found it required an enhanced communications foundation to both leverage the next-generation capabilities of 5G as well as provide their IT/OT teams with the essential power of control over networks, devices and data. After a rigorous selection process, Expeto’s NeXtworking platform emerged as a robust, secure and cost-effective solution to provide the uncompromising connectivity PGE required to support the Connected Utility Lab. But, as Expeto CEO Michael Anderson expressed, connectivity is only as valuable as its ability to produce outcomes.
“What we’ve done is harness the speed reach and scale of 5G, and with the Expeto platform we’ve given it that power of control for the enterprise so they can really reach their full potential and release applications like electric vehicle charging, wildfire mitigation, transportation electrification and so much more.”
The Connected Utility Lab has already seen success in deploying Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations for customers and fleet vehicles, as well as testing connected weather stations deployed in the field to gather wildfire weather data. In the second year of collaboration, lab members will continue to develop a diverse array of use cases that aim to accelerate the adoption of the most urgent priorities for utilities today. To learn more, watch the video below.
