Does 5G have the Spark to Serve the Energy Sector?

The energy and utilities sector is having to change rapidly in the face of challenges from multiple directions. There is increasing demand for power driven by digital infrastructure, particularly AI, while the demands of climate change require a shift away from traditional fossil-fuel power generation. Both these trends are forcing increased digitisation in the sector, which is giving cellular connectivity the chance to be of use in the expanding ecosystem.

Cellular technologies can be deployed across a variety of functions, usually concentrated on the ‘last mile’ of energy and utilities service provision, where wired connectivity is too expensive or impossible. Private networks are the exception to this, often deployed as a primary connectivity into spaces where terrestrial connectivity of any sort is lacking. 

As well as the technology improving the sector, the sector has very much made the technology; in some cases, smart metering has become the banner use case for NB-IoT, and the largest segment in the sector overall. Kaleido Intelligence forecasts that over 1 billion meters will be active worldwide by 2030. Much of the sector’s growth, particularly in the latter stages, will not be incremental, but rather replacing circuit-switched devices with LPWAN devices. However, once this switch is made it should be relatively permanent, as LPWAN technologies have been grandfathered into 5G specifications. 

Number of Active Smart Meters Cellular Connections per annum in millions, 2024-2030, split by region 

These connections make up most of the cellular connectivity within the sector, with the remainder serving a variety of smart grid use cases and remote support for the oil and gas industry. Many of these connections are resource-constrained or otherwise operating in challenging environments, often making conventional connectivity solutions difficult or unsuited to the needs of the sector. 

The Place of 5G 

There has been some hesitance around deploying 5G for energy and utilities in the past, but it is now becoming the default. 5G is typically in demand not for its network speeds, which will not be relevant to all use cases, but for its longevity. With in-field assets that are expected to last decades, typical cellular refresh cycles are already relatively short-term for many grid-based use cases. Extractive industries tend to have shorter cycles (particularly in the prospecting stages), but otherwise the technology may last beyond the anticipated lifespan of a cellular generation. As such, implementing 5G in the industry is as much about future-proofing operational capacity as it is anything else. 

Of particular interest is the ability to leverage network slicing for QoS (quality of service) guarantees, but it should be noted that even under the most stringent latency budgets for current 5G (delivering an average of 8-10ms, with 50-60ms spikes under congestion), this will limit its usage in grids to SCADA/telemetry use cases, and control and automation of grid resources. For grid protection signalling, deterministic latency is required, and is not currently achievable for 5G. 5G-A (3GPP Release 18 and 19) makes moves towards this, but even quasi-deterministic latency will only be possible with 3GPP Release 20. True determinism may not be possible until 6G is defined. 

Latency & Jitter Requirements by Use Case 

Platforms are the Key Ecosystem Enabler 

For the most part, utility connectivity systems are sold as a platform, with the underlying connectivity and infrastructure part of the overall agreement the power company has with the platform vendor. This means that those platform vendors are the best targets for CSPs to offer services, such as Vodafone’s partnership with Smart DCC for smart meters in the UK. This also holds for mining deployments as well, with software offered on the assumption of an available private network; some platform vendors will offer direct partnerships with private network vendors, while others expect a separate deal to already be in place. 

These can often be provided as a managed service, with additional VAS to support the integrator’s desired product. MNOs are often best-positioned for this, thanks to their large national networks, and tend to provide more VAS than other kinds of CSP. These are typically focused on traditional areas of fleet management and cybersecurity, which can then be integrated into the backend of platform services via API. However, this will make connectivity management by the eventual end user more difficult if they wish to adjust the connectivity themselves. 

Connectivity VAS Offerings Question: Beyond connectivity, what value-added services do you expect your cellular IoT connectivity service provider to offer? 

These vendors will need to be ready to adjust conventional practices to fit in with regulatory requirements in the sector, which will involve more stringent reporting practices at a minimum. Being able to quantify uptime and immediately notify relevant authorities of downtime may require adjustments to the alert system provided by the CMP.