Nokia has provided a private 4.9G LTE wireless network to Western Power Distribution (WPD) in the UK to test its ability to enable a smart grid.

The network will be used for supervisory control and data acquisition (scada) testing, as well as other mission-critical systems such as voice services.

WPD’s LTE Connecting Futures trial is testing the LTE network to enable its smart grid. The 4.9G LTE core, radio and user equipment were supplied by Nokia for WPD’s research at its test and development centre in Taunton, UK.

WPD’s communications network provides secure, resilient and reliable services to support its daily operations. The company distributes electricity to the midlands and south west of England, and to Wales. These services include the use of licensed and unlicensed radio, microwave, and fibre networks.

Nokia worked with WPD to install and test the 4.9G LTE MPW private wireless, as well as the mission critical talk and video offering, together with Nokia industrial user equipment including workpads, supporting scada and other applications. Integrated and optimised to represent a typical private LTE network in Band 87 (410 to 430Mhz), the technology was tested by WPD for operational characteristics, including assessment of throughput in interference and non-interference environments.

“Through the challenges posed by the pandemic, we have worked closely with Nokia over the last two years to demonstrate the capability of its 4.9G LTE private wireless to support the operation of our smart grid including scada, voice, video and data services,” said Phil Rigden, telecoms manager for WPD. “We have been able to document key learnings to share with the utility industry that confirm the suitability of 4.9G LTE and 5G to provide the connectivity platform for tomorrow’s grid.”

Private wireless network slicing was also tested for possible use of the same physical networks by tenant companies in the gas and electricity sectors.

“The industrial test environment we have established with WPD is providing a platform to trial various grid use cases on private wireless networks,” said Matthieu Bourguignon, vice president at Nokia. “These include active network monitoring, power quality measurements, CCTV, distributed generation and automation of the smart grid. The range of applications and uses of private wireless will further support the industry to meet the regulatory challenges of providing clean, sustainable energy.”

Energy companies turning to Nokia for private wireless networking include Elektro, Equinor, QTnet and Siemens. The Finland-based company has more than 340 large enterprise customers across industries worldwide, of which over 40 incorporate 5G. It has deployed mission-critical networks to over 1500 enterprises in the transport, energy, large enterprise, manufacturing, web scale and public sector segments around the globe.