Nokia is extending its relationship with the world’s largest power utility through the selection of its Optical Transport Network (OTN) solutions, which will be used by SGCC across its power grid infrastructure.

SGCC will deploy Nokia’s optical technology across Hubei, Hunan and Jiangxi provinces, which is hoped to create an OTN backbone with the capacity, operational efficiency and intelligence required to support the Chinese power grid and provide highly-reliable service to its customer base.

SGCC supplies electrical power to more than 1.1 billion people across 26 provinces, covering 88% of Chinese national territory.

Nokia: IoT and smart grid complexity

As power utilities such as SGCC adopt the Internet of Things (IoT) in the creation of smart grids, both bandwidth and complexity increase.

The Nokia solution, which consists of Nokia’s family of 1830 Photonic Service Switch-x (PSS-x) P-OTN, is hoped to enable SGCC to improve the overall reliability of the power grid and achieve a significant reduction in daily operating costs.

Through automation, the utility aims to be able to monitor electrical power production and distribution status in real time, using IoT sensors throughout their infrastructure. SGCC is also able to harness new energy sources such as solar, water and wind by connecting and monitoring these energy generation and storage systems across its wide geography.

The Nokia optical transport portfolio provides scalable WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexing) capabilities from 100G to 600G per wavelengths, which aims to eliminate the need for costly, disruptive replacements and minimise product waste.

Markus Bochert, president of Nokia Greater China, said: “The Nokia solution is one of the most agile and efficient optical transport networks available today.

“With this mission-critical network, the State Grid Corporation of China now has the flexibility to transition beyond 100G when and how it chooses, leveraging unmatched operational and environmental efficiencies as it automates and modernises across its geographies.”