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NETWORK / 13 / APRIL 2019 e ectively manage both energy a ordability and enhanced environmental protections. BEIS has already identi ed in its 2017 study on smart systems that a potential economic gain of £40 billion is possible but this will not be realisable without investment in enhanced operational telecommunications capability. •• Q How are the network operators responding to the needs for better telecoms? A As noted earlier the ENA Strategic Telecoms Group (STG) has been formed to ensure a collaborative approach from an energy utilities perspective. Bi-lateral and unilateral liaison with government and regulators to ensure that policy makers understand the challenge. In the short term they are working to extend the existing sys- tems within the limitations that exist. •• Q Can you explain the work that JRC is doing in this area? A From a policy perspective, JRC is sup- porting its members through platforms such as the ENA Strategic Telecoms Group (STG) to raise awareness across the industry and amongst policy makers to ensure that appropriate actions/interventions are un- dertaken in support of smart grid develop- ments. From a technology perspective, JRC is heavily committed to technology develop- ment and targeted research to ensure that future telecoms solutions are e ective and t for purpose. Q How important a role will com- munications play in enabling the smart grid? A The market shi' from large centralised energy generation to smaller distribut- ed energy generation is reducing the inertia of the grid system.•This makes the network more susceptible to degradation from rapid ' uctuations in both supply and demand, and can only be countered by faster system responses, placing even greater reliance on highly available rapidly responding telecoms control networks. Whilst, the majority of the focus has been on electric- ity networks it is worth acknowledging that gas networks are also subject to change with an increase in the number of injection points and the range of gas products with varying thermal properties likely to result in the need for more granular monitoring and control of the gas networks. Q What is Black Start and what sort of impact could this have if it was ever activated? A This relates to the total loss of the energy networks as a result of some signi cant event, i.e. weather, system attack, catastrophic failure, etc. Modern society is wholly dependent on energy networks to function and as such a Black Start is an event which governments are in a state of preparedness against because of the profound impact it would have on society. Working with industry the government en- sures that the energy networks are suitably resilient to known threats, e.g. weather and that they have appropriate systems in place to undertake a controlled restart of the energy networks in the event of a signi cant loss. Q What is spectrum and why's it so important? A The radio spectrum is the part of the electromagnetic spectrum with frequen- cies from 30 Hertz to 300GHz. Electromag- netic waves in this frequency range, called radio waves, are extremely widely used in modern technology, particularly in tel- ecommunications. To prevent interference between di erent users, the generation and transmission of radio waves is strictly regulated by national laws, coordinated by an international body, the International Tel- ecommunication Union (ITU). Because it is a nite resource which is in demand by an increasing number of users, the radio spec- trum has become increasingly congested in recent decades. Energy utilities have speci c needs when it comes to radio spectrum access; the wide geographic distribution of their networks and the need to access remote xed assets reliably, typically using low power equip- ment to allow eœ cient use of the spectrum. Typically, spectrum in the Ultra High Frequency (UHF) band [300MHz to 3GHz] meets this need particularly well. However, with the increased awareness and com- mercialisation of spectrum, together with the already crowded nature of UK spectrum, securing access to appropriate spectrum for the energy utilities has become an increas- ing challenge. Q How important is security when it comes to enabling different types of telecommunications? A Attacks on energy networks arise from diverse sources ranging from mischie- vous teenage hackers to nation states with well organised and funded teams of highly skilled and motivated experts.•Modern warfare is now about bringing a country to its knees economically more than invading its physical territory.•What makes utility operational systems harder to defend is that they have to maintain operations even when under attack.•Many other so' ware systems can defend themselves by clos- ing down while they identify the source of the attack.•That is not realistic for utility networks - they have to keep functioning. Hence, those components that are integral to the operational control and monitoring of the energy networks require the utmost security to be designed into their function. Q What's the one thing you believe could advance smart telecommu- nications in the short-term? A That the policy framework acknowl- edges the importance of dedicated spectrum access to support 'smart grid' developments and as a result government commits to work with industry and regula- tors to ensure that appropriate interventions are undertaken. With certainty from govern- ment the industry will be able to plan and prepare the necessary investment to support smart grid developments. TRANSITION TO DSO "The immediate priority is for the industry to secure long-term access to additional radio spectrum."