Always one of the most popular topics at the UTC Annual Conference, BPL continues to attract attention. There are several significant deployments around the country, and they continue to make progress. Meanwhile, the FCC and the states have issued policies to promote the deployment of BPL, deregulating BPL services and transactions. Also, the technology continues to improve, with SmartGrid applications attracting the most attention. Find out the latest developments, including the state of the industry as reported by UTC Research. Whether you are new to BPL or think you have heard it all before, you need to attend this session.

Optical fiber use spans multiple utility applications deployed by gas, water or electric entities. The 30-year maturation of optical fiber – from long-distance communications with an emphasis on optical propagation to attributes like bending loss, handling and reliability – has led to utilities embracing this medium. This session will discuss migrating existing fiber assets toward passive optic networking (PON) architectures, using PON technology for FTTX deployments, and trends in communications infrastructure planning with project examples of a 1000M fiber project by a California water utility.

While AMI and SmartGrids have become buzzwords within the utility industry, what do they really mean? How can utilities truly realize quantifiable benefits that can be demonstrated with these technologies? This session will move beyond the hype and delve into the real issues associated with advanced metering and intelligent grid initiatives, showing you ways to structure your thinking about the opportunities for your utility.