Major Electric Utilities Expected to Invest in BPL

“Utilities have moved into this field very reluctantly,” Wood told reporters. “It’s my hope that a year from now boards of directors and shareholders and customers are all asking utilities, ‘Why aren’t you in BPL? Why aren’t you providing this service like Manassas is?’ So it’s got to start.”

Powell said FCC was spurring investment in BPL by “lowering uncertainty” about regulation. “That’s one of the reasons that the FCC has been working to bring some clarity as to what are the regulatory rules, in other words the risks associated with entering the market,” he said. “Whenever you have a new innovative technology, it’s not surprising that some of the most established, conservative organizations [like the utilities] are hesitant to enter until they have a better understanding of what their costs will be and what their regulatory environment will be.”

Wood said he was impressed by the many uses Manassas has found for BPL. “The enhanced technology that is being used across this network is also used to make your electricity more reliable,” he said. “As regulators over the blackout that happened across the whole Northeast last summer, we're very interested in seeing how can technology be used in our industry to be something that makes it more reliable and better for the customer.”

But Wood doesn’t see the need for FERC to do more to encourage investment in BPL, even with the reliability benefits. “I think the financial incentive of having an existing infrastructure be used as an additional source of revenue to a utility or to a company is incentive enough,” he said. “I would think that should be sufficient.”

Powell and Wood Tues. viewed BPL infrastructure, including the equipment tying the electric system to the Internet. They were shown how the city uses BPL to detect small power outages and monitor electricity and water substations. The tour took them past the town square, which offers Wi-Fi through BPL. Later, they met a man at a retirement home who uses the technology.

FERC Comr. Nora Mead Brownell told us she expects the big utilities to start investing in BPL. “What you are going to see is more and more and more demand from customers who want all the options that are available to them,” she said. “I think you're going to see an increasingly activist customer base.” Brownell added: “The reliability aspects are unbelievable… We need better diagnostics. Think if we had better diagnostics on Aug,. 14 [the latest major blackout]. And it’s not only knowing when the lights are out it’s knowing where they're out.”

The tour came as the FCC puts the finishing touches on its BPL order to be voted out at Thurs.’s agenda meeting. Alan Shark, CEO of the Power Line Communications Assn., told us that based on discussions with the FCC he expects the order to be one that BPL providers “can live with.” Shark said he has 2 main worries.

The first is the “sanctity” of the database collected by the FCC. “We understand the FCC’s desire to have some kind of a database that would be a means to check if there is a problem with interference,’ he said. “We don’t have a problem with the idea of a database… but we hope that whatever it is is a confidential thing that is not used for competitors to see things and take advantage.” Dispute resolution is a 2nd area of concern, Shark said. “We want to solve problems quickly if there are any,” he said. “We're concerned of people coming in and complaining about interference that has nothing to do with BPL… We don’t want to be involved with having to spend weeks and weeks trying to track things down that have nothing to do with our systems.”

Shark said BPL companies are awaiting a set of standards through the IEEE. A preliminary standards setting group will meet for the 3rd time today (Wed.) in N.J.

Alan Richardson, pres. of the American Public Power Assn. (APPA), said municipal systems will look closely at the FCC’s pending order but are most concerned about attacks on the rights of cities to offer BPL in many state legislatures and in Congress. Richardson expected the Bell attacks against the city systems comparable to decades-long public power fights with investor-owned utilities. “We expect that there will be some proposals to limit communities involvement in communications,” Richardson said. “We fully expect that when the communications laws are up next year there will be similar proposals.”

Interference issues remain huge headed into Thurs.’s meetings. FCC sources said that regardless of the protections established, the Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL) and other groups are likely to continue to protest. Powell said FCC testing was putting concerns to rest: “I am quite confident that the Commission is going to come together to reach a result that’s well balanced.”

The Manassas system, operated by COMTek, is perhaps the best known BPL system in the U.S. Manassas provides 200 customers broadband at $28.95 for residential service and starting at $39.99 for business. - Howard Buskirk