There are more than 14,000 transmission substations in the US owned by about 3,000 electric utilities. Some of the substations are connected by fiber to the utility network, but many more are not. There is no data available today on how many substations are connected and how many are isolated. In order to make the grid smarter and more manageable, every substation should be connected to the network.

Having broadband communications to these substations will enable many smart grid applications. It will expand SCADA coverage, it can be used for protective relaying and digital control, remote asset protection and station surveillance, synchrophasor data streaming and other sensing and measurement applications, and others.

Installing fiber in every station is the ideal solution, however high cost, topographical and access challenges, right of way and license permits, and a long and labor intense installation process, make fiber a not very practical solution in many cases.

Amperion identified this problem as the “Fiber Gap” and is proposing a cost effective alternative with a newly developed technology - HV BPL - High Voltage Broadband over Powerline. This communications solution is using utility’s own wires so there is no need to trench or hang fiber over many miles. The installation process takes less than a day and is safe to install hot - so no outage is required.

The HV BPL technology has been tested over the last two years over 46kV and 69kV lines and will be applied this year on 138kV lines. Approximately 70% of all sub-transmission lines are at 138kV or below, so by the end of 2009, HV BPL can be used in about 10,000 stations to close the fiber gap.