How 5G Will Benefit Utility Companies

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You’ve no doubt heard of 5G – the fifth generation of mobile networking technology.  Although 5G is not yet ready for prime time, utilities should start planning for it, because it should provide a number of positive benefits.

Top Three Ways Utilities Can Benefit from 5G

First off, it’s important to understand that 5G is more than just a faster version of 4G.  While the new technology is said to be much faster than current technology, it will also offer increased bandwidth to accommodate a larger number of IoT (internet of things) devices, as well as a lower level of latency.

Beyond these generalities, here are three ways that utilities stand to benefit from 5G:

1. 5G should help accelerate the deployment of advanced metering technology (AMI), a component of which is smart meters. This will provide additional intelligence for energy customers to help them use energy more wisely and will provide insights to utilities so they can serve customers more efficiently, improve their ability to detect and isolate outages, and even help detect energy theft.
2. It will improve the efficiency of operations, helping to reduce O&M costs and improve outage restoration times. For example, the enhanced network should improve the functionality of infrastructure inspection drones by increasing their range and accommodating the real time transmission of videos and images.
3. 5G will help expand the smart grid by increasing its capacity, improving the accuracy of grid-monitoring technology, and generating data to assist with demand-management efforts.

Obviously, there are many more examples of the benefits – this “top-three” list is really just the tip of the iceberg.  And the list will probably grow longer and become clearer as the enhanced networking technology becomes more pervasive in the market.

Therefore, now is the perfect time for utilities in all sectors to research the many opportunities that 5G can provide around operational efficiency, data and intelligence, cost savings and customer satisfaction, so that implementation plans can start being created.