More News on BPL

The Dallas Morning News reported that Broadband Over Power Lines Plan is Dead in Dallas because Current Communications is bailing out of its plan to offer internet service via BPL. However, Oncor is going to buy the equipment from Current and use it to help manage the power grid. This is consistent with recent trends in the BPL industry that are emphasizing using BPL as part of a "smart grid" strategy and deemphasizing operating as an Internet Service Provider.

An ARRL news article points out BPL is not going away in Dallas but (more importantly) the BPL technology from Current is believed to be "ham friendly." The reason for this is that Current uses the Homeplug standard on the power lines that go into a residence, which notches out the HF amateur bands, not including 60 Meters. (By the way, the ARRL lab....which basically means Ed Hare W1RFI....got involved with the Homeplug standard early and influenced them to implement this notching.) Where Current equipment is in use, there have been no amateur radio interference complaints.

An article at itbusinessedge.com poses the question "Is it Lights Out for BPL?" Very likely.

In the mean time, the FCC got its hand slapped by the U.S. Court of Appeals for their mishandling of the BPL rulemaking process.

Closer to home in Colorado, Xcel Energy made this announcement:

Xcel Energy announces intended site of Smart Grid City: Boulder, Colo. to become first fully integrated "smart" city in the nation

The current electric grid has served us well for the last half century. But the future requires a technology revolution.

The next-generation electricity grid will allow our company to better meet growing demands, address environmental challenges, maximize available resources and optimize the entire energy system. Ultimately, a “smarter” grid helps us serve our customers by creating more options for managing personal energy use, habits and costs.

Their list of partners in the Smart Grid Consortium includes Current Group, which seems to imply that BPL may be part of the system deployment. It is not clear from their press release that Xcel will be offering internet service to the general public. However, I have heard from a reliable source that Xcel has been telling customers in Boulder that broadband internet service is part of their plan.

You can see the appeal of a Smart Grid approach with all of the focus on "being green." Managing the power grid and energy demand is one way to get the most out of an electric utility. If a utility can gain some extra revenue by selling broadband internet, that's even better.

The good news is that the Current Group technology seems to be OK from a ham radio point of view. Other users of the HF spectrum may see things differently.

73, Bob K0NR