New York Power Authority pilots private LTE network with AT&T

February 17, 2022 Editor

wireless — Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

The New York Power Authority (NYPA) and communications provider AT&T agreed to pilot AT&T’s FirstNet technologies as part of a NYPA private wireless Long-Term Evolution (LTE) technology pilot project.

FirstNet is a nationwide, high-speed broadband communications platform for first responders and the extended public safety community. By having a dedicated network, first responders may be better assured that their message will go out during an emergency and will not be bogged down by public network congestion.

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The NYPA project is designed to build a private communications network specifically for the utility. The goal is to enhance the utility’s readiness and operational and programmatic capabilities. As an organization that could be called upon to help support New York’s public safety in day-to-day operations and during emergency response, NYPA will evaluate FirstNet’s ability to equip its employees with new capabilities and reliable access to information while in the field.

FirstNet was built with AT&T in public-private partnership with the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority), an independent agency within the federal government.

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An initial pilot project took place at NYPA’s Blenheim-Gilboa’s Pumped Storage Power project and was targeted to complement several critical NYPA initiatives including its communication backbone and sensor deployment programs.

The $153 million communication backbone program aims to replace NYPA’s existing point-to-point circuits to manage the increased data flow from the deployment of intelligent sensors. Since 2017, NYPA has worked to install sensor devices to monitor the health of its transmission and generation assets and to further enable the capabilities of its Integrated Smart Operations Center (iSOC).

In addition to testing communications on the FirstNet network, NYPA previously tested the applications using sub-gig spectrums Band 8 (Anterix) and Band 71 (Omega Wireless) with Nokia.

NYPA is also testing additional spectrums Band 8, Band 48 (CBRS), and Band 53 (GlobalStar) at its LTE lab in White Plains, New York.

Originally published by Jennifer Runyon on power-grid.com