Press & News

Making the Smart Grid Smarter: Israeli Smart Grid Consortium Addresses Electrical Companies’ Next-Generation Infrastructure Needs

Recently-formed Consortium will focus on communications and monitor & control issues

​ISRAEL — August 30, 2011

Seven leading Israeli companies and five universities in Israel announced today the formation of the ISG Consortium, whose goal is to develop next-generation unified communication and smart grid management networks for utilities. With financial support provided by the Israeli Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS) through its Magnet program , the founding consortium members are ECI Telecom, Motorola Solutions Israel Ltd., CEVA, Yitran Communications, PowerCom, RUGGEDCOM, Control Applications, Ben-Gurion University, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Ariel University Center of Samaria, Holon Institute of Technology and Tel-Aviv University. Smart grid technology is fueled by the continuous growing demand for green energy and the requirement to economically deliver and control reliable and sustainable electricity service.

Smart grid technology attempts to predict and intelligently respond to the behavior and actions of all electric power users connected to the grid, by employing innovative products and services, coupled with intelligent monitoring, control, communication, and self-healing technologies. With the emergence of smart grids, every consumer is a potential “prosumer” – both a consumer of green energy services and a supplier of excess capacity to the rest of the grid. The smart grid adds the intelligence necessary to the network that empowers such users.

Research Scope

The ISG consortium will focus on the smart grid of the future, addressing all issues related to communications and monitor and control of transmission, distribution and generation of energy to and from the home network. 

Research topics will include:

•    Developing distributed architectures and topologies to allow scalability, survivability
     and resiliency of utilities’ communications networks

•    Forecasting  models for consumption and Demand Response control mechanisms

•    Developing technologies and protocols for real time prediction, monitoring and
     control of potential failures, automatic isolation and self-healing of communication
     and electricity networks

•    Advanced monitoring of electricity quality for grid stability and methods for local and
     decentralized network management

•    Optimizing Power Line Communication’s (PLC) effectiveness and capacity

 The Consortium has already initiated its activities and will continue for the next three to five years. It will work closely with and contribute to the international industry standard organizations dealing with smart grid, such as ANSI, ETSI, IEC 62056 and DLMS/COSEM, as well as with electrical power companies around the world.

Expert Perspectives

“By working with leading companies in this field, we are able to incorporate their practical experience and input into our research, and we can conversely provide them with the expertise to develop the necessary algorithms and models to address critical issues such as reliability, vulnerability, self-healing networks, monitoring and control, It’s a win-win situation for this field.”

Prof. Danny Dolev, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Smart Grid refers to a new and improved electricity supply chain that runs from a major power plant as well as other renewable energy resources all the way to the home.  The Smart Grid concept is to add monitoring, analysis, control, and communication capabilities to the electrical delivery system to maximize the throughput of the system, and to add green energy resources while reducing the energy consumption. The Smart Grid will allow utilities to move electricity around the system as efficiently and economically as possible. It will also allow homeowners and businesses to use electricity as economically as possible.

About ECI Telecom

ECI Telecom delivers innovative communications platforms to carriers and service providers worldwide. ECI provides efficient platforms and solutions that enable customers to rapidly deploy cost-effective, revenue-generating services.  

Founded in 1961, Israel-based ECI has consistently delivered customer-focused networking solutions to the world’s largest carriers. The Company is also a market leader in many emerging markets. ECI provides scalable broadband access, transport and data networking infrastructure that provides the foundation for the communications of tomorrow, including next-generation voice, IPTV, mobility, business and utilities/utelcos solutions.

 With over 60 power utility customers, ECI provides end-to-end communications networks, from SCADA Interfaces to high-capacity WDM networks and smart metering (AMI/AMR) ecosystems.  For more information, please visit www.ecitele.com .

About Motorola Solutions Israel Ltd.

Motorola Solutions Israel Ltd (MSIL) was founded in 1964 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Motorola Solutions Inc., a multinational communications corporation headquartered in the United States. MSIL was the first branch of Motorola Inc., outside the USA, and the first to establish a development center in Israel. MSIL is one of the leading high-tech and communications companies in Israel.  Motorola Solutions Israel Ltd comprises several business units and subsidiaries involved in the company's development, production, marketing and sales activities. Motorola Solutions Israel develops and sells communication, command and control equipment for transmission and distribution electricity networks as well as substations management systems. The company is in continuous contact with power companies around the world and has over four decades knowledge and experience in the field of Distribution Automation (DA) and computerized remote control of Medium Voltage (MV) substations and power grids applications. A part of ISG activities, MSIL will coordinate electricity network command and control cluster of the consortium.

For more information, please visit: http://www.motorola.com/Business/XU-EN/Business+Solutions/Industry+Solutions/Utilities.

About CEVA, Inc.

 CEVA is the world’s leading licensor of silicon intellectual property (SIP) DSP cores and platform solutions for the mobile handset, portable and consumer electronics markets. CEVA’s IP portfolio includes comprehensive technologies for cellular baseband (2G / 3G / 4G), multimedia, HD video and audio, voice over packet (VoP), Bluetooth, Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) and Serial ATA (SATA). In 2010, CEVA's IP was shipped in over 600 million devices, powering handsets from 7 out of the top 8 handset OEMs, including Nokia, Samsung, LG, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and ZTE. Today, more than one in every three handsets shipped worldwide is powered by a CEVA DSP core. For more information, visit www.ceva-dsp.com. Follow CEVA on twitter at www.twitter.com/cevadsp.

About  RUGGEDCOM

RuggedCom is a leading provider of rugged communications networking solutions designed for mission-critical applications in harsh environments. RuggedCom’s technology solutions include Ethernet switches, network routers, wireless devices, serial servers, media converters, software and professional services. RuggedCom’s products are designed for use in harsh environments such as those found in electrical power substations and “Smart Grids”, intelligent transportation systems, industrial process control and military applications.

About Yitran Communications Ltd.

Yitran Communications Ltd. designs, develops and markets high performance, low cost PLC modem chips. Yitran’s products provide extremely robust and reliable communication over existing electrical wiring and power grids to enable a variety of command and control applications. Yitran's customer and partner lists include leading companies such as Renesas, Matsushita Electric Works, Hitachi, KEPCO, Kinden, LG and Microsoft. For further details: http://www.yitran.com/.

About PowerCom

Powercom is a leading manufacturer, providing "Smart Grid" and "Smart Metering" implementation. Powercom offers and "End to End" solution based on its "Smart Meters", Concentrators, and powerful web based applications for Smart Meter Management and Control (MDM). Over the last few years, PowerCom has been successful in implementing an advanced, reliable and secured PLC communication. The breakthrough was achieved by developing a dynamic PLC technology which allows bidirectional data flow over the low voltage grid lines. The technology allows real time readings through the power lines from any smart meters in seconds.

Powercom currently offers Multi Utility platforms for Electricity, Water and Gas. The platform uses all available communication as PLC, RF, GPRS, TCP/IP at open protocols. For more information, please visit http://www.powercom.co.il/.

About Control Applications

Control Applications (CA) develops monitoring systems for electrical networks, electrical meters, power factor controllers and computerized control systems. CA develops advanced smart grid components including:

•    Power quality analyzers that are installed at the neighborhood level which includes
     forecasting algorithms for energy consumption and failure detection

•    Smart meter with built in control unit for demand response and demand side
     management

•    Consumer interface units that allow consumers to monitor their energy usage and
      their costs as well as defining their preference

For more information, please visit our web site www.ddc.co.il 

About the MAGNET Program

The MAGNET Program, in the Office of the Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Industry, Trade & Labor, sponsors innovative generic industry-oriented technologies to strengthen the country's technological expertise and enhance competitiveness.

MAGNET operates in five main tracks. The common denominator collaboration is a win-win proposition. Both industrial companies and academic research groups are better able to continue developing new and innovative products through synergetic collaboration than if it each worked alone.

Any company with a forward vision can find a framework that can promote its needs and it is welcome to participate in the MAGNET activities.

MAGNET welcomes new proposals and looks forward to providing you with assistance in establishing a new operation within its framework or by enabling you to join an existing activity. MAGNET is the only public funding program to encourage and promote R&D ties between universities and the private sector.

Certain statements contained in this release may contain forward-looking information with respect to plans, projections or future performance of the Company. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve certain risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, product and market acceptance risks, the impact of competitive pricing, product development, commercialization and technological difficulties as well as other risks.