Smart Grid Communication System (SGCS)
Jeff Nichols
Sr. Director
IT Infrastructure
San Diego Gas & Electric
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DOE Disclaimer
The
Department of Energy (DOE) disclaimer must be used. This is a DOE requirement. An
acknowledgment of Federal support and a disclaimer must appear in the publication of any material, whether
copyrighted or not, based on or developed under this project, as follows:
 Acknowledgment: "This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy under Award
Number DE-OE0000371.
Disclaimer: "This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States
Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes
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- For Internal Use Only -
The Spectrum Issue

As SDGE tried to spec & design a high-performance smart grid
communication service, spectrum quickly became the key issue. We
looked exhaustively at many options.
 700 Mhz, 1.4 Ghz, 2.3 Ghz, 3.65 Ghz, 400 Mhz, 800/900 Mhz, 1.8 Ghz,
TV white spaces…

2.3 Ghz WCS spectrum was the only option that survived our major
filters :
 Availability in our service territory
 Affordability
 Clear title
 Equipment availability
 Operational fit
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WCS Spectrum
*Amateur Radio Service has 5 MHz and is directly adjacent to A Block. The Federal Deep Space Receivers live between 2290-2300 MHz
**Aeronautical Mobile Telemetry Service operates at the upper adjacent edge between 2360-2395 MHz
Service Design Goals
Service Spec
Throughput @ Cell
Edge (3 simul users)
Design Goal
1 Mbps on downlink
100 kbps on uplink
(per user)
Throughput close to
cell
2.6 Mbps on downlink
1.3 Mbps on uplink
Latency
Less than 100 ms
Endpoints per cell
256 per sector
768 per 3 sector cell
Backhaul Availability
.999995 (2.6 minutes
downtime per year)
RAN Availability
.99997 (15 minutes
downtime per year)
Examples: Smart Grid devices
Pilot Coverage
Prediction
SGCS Pilot
Coverage Prediction
Policy Issues
Going Forward

WCS
 Continued good partnership with FCC on evolving the operations
requirements in WCS bands
 Testing & cooperation with WCS neighbors

Other critical infrastructure spectrum
 Details on acquisition & usage of 700 Mhz public safety bands
 Federal oversight of those bands
 State & user governance of resulting shared networks
 Cybersecurity requirements on communication infrastructure
 Creating a value metric not based on “per consumer”
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Q&A
http://sdge.com/smart-grid-movement
SGCS@semprautilities.com
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