Hughes Launches Managed Services Offering for the Electric Utilities Market to Aid in Smart Grid efforts

 

March 30, 2009

Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES), the global leader in broadband satellite network solutions and services and a leading managed services provider, today announced the availability of Hughes Utilities Solutions for the electric utility industry. Hughes Utilities Solutions provides 100% nationwide coverage and is designed to cost effectively improve real-time communications and monitoring of distributed transmission and sub-station facilities as part of the electric utility industry's smart grid efforts to become more efficient in the distribution of power to consumers. Hughes Utilities Solutions comprises a suite of high-performance, secure, and reliable open architecture, IP-based broadband solutions designed to help meet the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) critical infrastructure protection (CIP) security requirement.

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation, which is overseen by the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and government authorities in Canada, has established mandates for the security of data to and from utility generation stations and substations through a set of critical infrastructure protection (CIP) requirements.

Hughes Utilities Solutions helps meet these requirements by providing utility companies with a single-source managed broadband solution which supports multiple business operations while reducing costs, improving security, and meeting NERC-CIP requirements. Designed to provide scalability, enhanced reliability, and to improve real-time communications, Hughes Utility Solutions can help the utility industry optimize grid performance, prevent outages, and restore outages more quickly, and as a result of these efficiency gains, reduce greenhouse gases as part of their new smart grid initiatives.

Hughes Utilities Solutions offers the utility industry a range of access technologies including DSL, cable, T1, EVDO, and satellite to deliver nationwide broadband coverage wherever their critical transmission and distribution infrastructure assets are located.

A fully managed broadband offering, Hughes Utilities Solutions creates a seamless network service by using the most efficient and cost-effective technology at each site?whether landline or satellite—resulting in a uniform, cost-efficient, secure, and highly reliable broadband service at each location. In addition, the solution can provide a path diverse backup network for extremely high availability. Hughes Utilities Solutions includes 24x7 operations, network management, proactive fault resolution and field maintenance and supports serial protocols, as well as multiple applications.

“The utility industry can leverage Hughes Utilities Solutions to help meet NERC-CIP requirements and at the same time, consolidate their costly legacy networks into scalable, future-proof broadband IP network,” said Mike Cook , senior vice president, Hughes. “By providing the industry with a cost-effective, more reliable, more efficient wide area network, Hughes can help the electric utility industry become more efficient as they meet their important smart grid objectives.”