Grid-critical industry group gathers for conference

More than 70 telecommunications professionals from around the region gathered recently in Minneapolis for the Utilities Technology Council (UTC) Region 5 conference to discuss important topics that are critical to the operation of the electric grid.

Great River Energy hosted the event, and Vice President and Chief Information Officer Jim Jones kicked off the annual conference with opening remarks.

“As the electric industry navigates through the energy transition, communications to support the grid of the future is more complex than in the past. For the telecommunications professionals involved, UTC is a valuable consortium to work together on those complexities,” Jones said.

Today’s modern grid is made up not only of electrical substations and power lines, but also a complex network of telecommunications towers and fiber optic wires that help deliver data around the grid and to sophisticated control rooms.

UTC is a global trade association dedicated to serving critical infrastructure providers. Through advocacy, education and collaboration, UTC creates a favorable business, regulatory and technology environment for members like Great River Energy that own or operate information and communication technology systems in support of their core business.

Eleven utilities from Manitoba, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin were represented at the conference by telecommunications professionals.

The conference featured technical presentations and time for networking with industry peers. It also included a roundtable that allowed utilities to discuss industry topics, products, workflow and how each utility accomplishes common goals.

Session highlights included substation networks of the future, overcoming challenges with tower anchor installations and engineering optical ground wire for lightning resistance. Industry experts provided education on maintaining precision timing in the event of an attack on the GPS satellite network as well as a case study panel discussion on transporting teleprotection circuits over a leased Ethernet service.

 “The conference was a great opportunity for Great River Energy to show leadership among its peers and join with others in the industry to learn from one another and network,” Jones said.