While consulting for CableLabs® on innovation in adjacent markets and industries I came to the realization that the Broadband, Energy, and Transportation industries are on a path of convergence and most people don't even realize it (yet).
Based on this concept of Infrastructure Convergence I set out to test my hypothesis regarding this convergence. I authored a trio of papers exploring this concept. The first of these was published as an SCTE Cable-Tec Expo paper in 2022, entitled The Coming Convergence of Broadband, Energy, and Transportation.
This paper received significant attention and encouraged further investigation. CableLabs partnered with E Source to convene a a cross-industry forum of representatives from broadband providers, utilities, Electric Vehicle (EV) charging networks, and EV manufacturers (OEMs) to discuss the opportunities and challenges involved in Infrastructure Convergence. We spent close to a year meeting on a regular basis to further test this hypothesis in the context of the EV managed charging use case. I learned a great deal through this process and captured our "lessons learned" in the second paper, entitled Realizing Infrastructure Convergence of Broadband, Energy, and Transportation.
While this paper clearly revealed the potential of Infrastructure Convergence, it also identified many of the common misconceptions across the various industries as well as the gaps in the existing EV charging and power grid standards. The use case was fascinating, but our work wasn't particularly actionable. The challenge was identifying the business motivators that would be required to move this use case forward.
At this point, I pivoted to a use case that seemed more compelling from both a business and a national interest perspective. This use case focuses on the need for rapid grid modernization in the context of the massive transformation the power industry is undergoing. I authored a third paper to explore this opportunity with my good friends at Instrument the Grid (formerly Gridmetrics).
This is where I spend most of my time today and have submitted a subset of this work to the IEEE Task Force on Big Data Analytics for Synchro-Waveform Measurements that will appear in the recently released IEEE Power and Energy Society Technical Report PES-TR127.
I welcome fellow travelers who are inspired by big problems. Please contact me through email or post comments below. I welcome your input.
Thank you! Love to see the progression in thinking from the original vision! And we are now seeing actual progress by engaging regional power distribution, transmission and distribution for visibility, where we are increasing needing it due to local loads (EVs) and generation. Data-streaming-as-a-service will be essential to the grid of the future.
We would also love to see weatherized broadband modems that could couple to remote utility sensors/equipment wirelessly, opening the door to additional data-transport-as-a-service by broadband which is already in place.
Bruce Warmack
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Awesomeness. Share your vision and motivated to bring it to realization!!