Itron, Inc. announced that BC Hydro, which serves 1.9 million electricity customers throughout British Columbia, Canada, has entered the next phase of network migration for its Smart Metering Program. BC Hydro has passed a major milestone in the testing of Itron’s and Cisco’s jointly developed IPv6 network architecture.
BC Hydro will begin the transition from Itron’s RF Mesh architecture to the smart grid IPv6 network, ensuring interoperability of applications and distribution automation devices over a secure, enterprise-class network infrastructure. BC Hydro will now commence validation for the broader scale migration to the IPv6 network using close to 40,000 of the over 1.8 million meters currently installed. Migration of the remaining network connected meters via over-the-air firmware download, will take place in 2014.
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