Anterix, NREL joint effort aids renewable energy initiative

Anterix, the largest holder of licensed spectrum in the 900 MHz band, has completed the first phase of an ongoing project with the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

“Anterix is proud to support the NREL project to help define resilient and secure communications for our nation’s critical infrastructure,” Mike Brozek, senior vice president of Technology for Anterix, said.”These initial results give a baseline for controlling intermittent energy sources that utilities can refer to as they plan for a future filled with solar generation. Technology moves fast; the utility industry is moving with it, and Anterix is committed to supporting these transformative changes leveraging private 900 MHz broadband spectrum.”

With the aid of Anterix resources, NREL has demonstrated increased reliability for distributed generation systems such as solar and wind using private Long-Term Evolution (LTE) communications.

There is potential for private LTE networks to transmit control information without interruption or delay effectively, Anterix officials said, regardless of usage level or other congestion conditions.

“Adding more renewable and advanced energy technologies to the grid requires a backbone of secure, reliable communications,” Juan Torres, NREL’s associate laboratory director for Energy Systems Integration, said. “NREL’s work with Anterix at the Energy Systems Integration Facility is answering questions and identifying scalable solutions to allow communications to keep pace with deployment.”