Cisco sees a $20 billion opportunity in the smart grid, and wants to deliver products and services that span the grid, from home and business energy management to a secure, IP-based network to control substations and distributed energy resources, says Earth2Tech.
Cisco is working with big utilities like Duke Energy, Florida Power & Light, Germany’s Yellostrom, and Canada’s Enmax, and its vendor partners include General Electric, Accenture, Oracle, Arcadian Networks, Itron, Landis+Gyr, Siemens, Schneider Electric and Verizon. It also has its EnergyWise platform for controlling building and data center energy use, which could tie into smart grid networks in the future.
Earth2Tech asked Cisco’s senior vice president of smart grid, Laura Ipsen, to explain the company’s view:
Q) Cisco said it planned to bring smart grid devices to market early this year, but we haven’t seen much yet. What can we expect from Cisco, and when, in terms of announcements across its smart grid target areas?
A). We’re pretty excited about how we’re going after this market. We have a build-by-partner model, and I think you’ll see some things soon. We have an engineering team coming out with product you’ll see coming out in late summer or early fall that we’re testing with customers now.
Q). EnergyWise, Cisco’s new building energy management system, could be linked with smart grid systems. When will the two be connected?
A). EnergyWise is software we have in our switching equipment. When we launched it, it had open APIs and we want everyone to develop around that. We have some strategic partnerships with IBM and Tivoli, because we feel this is software we can leverage across multiple areas of IT, and ultimately non-IT, we’d like everyone to leverage EnergyWise.
Q). Cisco recently invested in Grid Net, a startup specializing in WiMAX. At the same time, Cisco has recently said it will quit the WiMAX radio access network business and will cease making WiMAX base stations. How do these two moves compute?
A). I don’t think that Cisco is turning our back on WiMAX. I think in the future we’ll still work towards WiMAX, but it will be through partners and licenses. It’s a very compelling technology in many parts of the world.
With Grid Net, what we find very interesting is their platform approach and how they’re driving IP, With the greater abilities of bandwidth at their head end system, we think it provides a very robust platform. It’s very interesting from where we see the future going, an IP-based and open approach. We’ve made a decision to invest and will make a decision on how we’ll work with them in the future.
Q). What other investments might Cisco be planning in the smart grid space?
A). We’re looking across the landscape, from (electricity) generation to consumption. I think you’ll see us make additional investments whether it’s an investment like Grid Net, or in the acquisition space. First and foremost, in spaces where our customers from an architecture approach are looking for technology. We will either build it, accelerate it through partnerships, or acquire it.
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