Prysmian Brings Optical Fibre to Smart Grids

Prysmian Group brings optical fibre to Smart Grids to guarantee sustainable, economic and reliable electricity supply and data transmission. In this way, power grids will be able to achieve a synergistic and smart fusion between the actions of all their users, both producers and consumers.

The Group, an active partner of Utilities in developing connections for the world’s most important energy production and distribution projects, strengthens its commitment to smart grid development by going beyond the traditional cable concept and providing innovative fibre solutions that satisfy new grid requirements in terms of renewable energy, energy efficiency and environmental impact reduction.

“In the telecommunications sector technological innovation always goes hand in hand with innovation in materials and production techniques, which it often anticipates,” said Alessandro Pirri, Connectivity Director Telecom Business – Prysmian Group. “Today, the Smart Cities project requires a high degree of innovation but also clear rules for coordinated development of infrastructures, materials and services; cables and smart monitoring instruments are a key part of this modernisation process to ensure better use of electricity grids and greater environmental sustainability.”

The Group has studied and developed a range of innovative fibre solutions to improve grid security and efficiency, by ensuring proper operation in all circumstances and conditions and thus preventing possible black-outs, failures and damages. This is the case, for example, of bend-insensitive optical fibre (BendBrightxs), and Retractable Solutions, with an indoor version, called VertiCasaXS, and an outdoor version, known as RetractaNetXS.

These solutions represent a major innovation because they improve the total cost of grid ownership, by reducing construction and maintenance costs. Another advantage is that they greatly simplify the planning process for the installer, who no longer has to carry out long and expensive preliminary surveys of the prospective building site. More compact cables, for use in network ducts already used by telecom operators and installed with simpler techniques, also allow savings in the amount of material consumed.

These solutions have been deployed in different geographical areas around the world: in France, for example, Fibre-To-The-Home in urban areas has been mostly developed using VertiCasaXS, while in the Netherlands, RetractaNetXS has been installed in low density urban areas.