Warsaw, Poland 11^th September 2019 – At a launch event attended by the Minister for Energy, Polish Power companies PGE Dystrybucja and Enea Operator signed cooperation agreement with PGE Systemy to build a highly secure, highly resilient private LTE network operating in the 450 MHz frequency band (LTE band 31). The frequency band has been made available by the regulator exclusively for the deployment of a smart grid network and has been allocated to PGE Systemy in the summer of 2018.

The announcement is the culmination of several months of work and extensive equipment trials with core and access technologies provided by Nokia and Ericsson. Additionally, a wide range of modem and handset vendors were involved with the trial and presented their products at the launch event. Ruggedized devices suitable for use in mechanically and electrically harsh environments were successfully shown to support multiple applications including push to talk, push to video, operational SCADA connectivity and smart metering applications.

PGE Systemy will coordinate the network deployment and will work in partnership with other Polish Distribution and Transmission network operators. The cooperation agreement represents a significant development in enhancing smart grid connectivity to facilitate the huge increase required in visibility and control of distributed renewable energy assets, electric vehicles, battery storage facilities and smart meters.

Legacy utility telecoms networks do not readily scale to the new connectivity challenges of the smart grid. An alternative in the 450 MHz frequency band based on 3GPP LTE technology is an attractive solution by virtue of the scalability, interoperability and vendor support for the solution. Such solutions are being investigated by many large utility companies throughout the world.

Also taking part in the event were representatives from the wider Polish Energy sector, device vendor community, 450 MHz Alliance and European Utilities Telecoms Council.