IP upgrade for NZ power grid
Power grid operator Transpower New Zealand will install an IP-based communications network to help manage New Zealand's national electricty grid.
Transpower has awarded Alcatel-Lucent a five-year contract to install and maintain the network, which will link 192 sites across the country.
Transpower owns and operates the National Grid, New Zealand's electricity transmission network, which links generators to distributors and industry.
-This communications network transformation is part of Transpower's continuing program of investment in New Zealand's National Grid; investments that will ensure the increasing demand for electricity is met now and into the future," Transpower chief executive Dr Ralph Craven said in a statement yesterday.
The work will see the company's legacy systems migrated to an IP/MPLS system over a fibre and microwave radio network, according to Alcatel-Lucent. The network will provide Voice over IP, wireless LAN, digital microwave and LAN switching capabilities.
The network will be based on technology from a number of vendors.
The value of the deal was not disclosed.