(Feb.29,2024)- The Utility Broadband Alliance (UBBA), a collaboration of utilities and solution providers dedicated to championing private broadband networks for critical infrastructure industries, today announced that it has completed a successful showcase at DISTRIBUTECH International in Orlando, Florida. At the event, participants from UBBA demonstrated innovative use cases, applications and opportunities for utilities to harness private LTE networks to enable the biggest innovations driving the utility industry forward.Utilities across the industry continue to realize the possibilities for private broadband as a key driver of grid modernization. Whether seeking to more effectively and securely connect advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) or integrate more renewable energy, deploying advanced communication networks can help ensure greater grid resiliency, security and efficiency for utilities and their customers.

At DISTRIBUTECH, UBBA members shared perspective on a multitude of topics related to private broadband utilization that included:

• Seamless Public/Private Network Transitioning: As utility device counts, bandwidth and latency become more complex, entirely new architectures will be required for success. This session, featuring a presentation from UScellular, dissected the transition from utility legacy proprietary solutions to private LTE.
• Rethinking Sustainable Sites for Utilities: Sustainable power is necessary, particularly in locations where secondary voltage isn’t accessible, to ensuring convenient and reliable power provision. This session, featuring panelists from Ericsson and Exelon, explored the role of sustainable sites in mitigating power outages with primary and dependable backup power sources.
• PLTE Testing of Utility Use Cases in Support of Grid Modernization: This session, featuring panelists from ComEd, Burns & McDonnell and Exelon, provided an overview of Private Long-Term Evolution (PLTE) testing on utility use cases within distribution automation and voltage optimization, all in support of the development of an advanced communication and telemetry network for achieving grid modernization goals.

“The utility industry is truly at a transformational moment as more organizations are seeing the benefits of private broadband for helping deliver the biggest innovations in the space,” said Michael Rosenthal, director of legal and external affairs for Southern Linc, a Southern Company, and chairman of the UBBA board of directors. “Our hope is that those who attended these and other UBBA-member-led sessions learned more about these benefits and gained valuable insight into building a business case and deploying these networks to help achieve their grid modernization goals.”

UBBA will host its annual UBBA Summit & Plugfest in Kansas City, Missouri, November 5-7, 2024. To learn more about UBBA and to inquire about potential membership, visit www.UBBA.com.