The 48V Flatpack S is designed for applications like wireless base station, broadband, fiber-to-the-curb (FTTC), fiber-to-the building (FTTB) and wireless remote radio head (RRH) cabinets. It provides 95.5% power conversion efficiency and is housed in a standard-width telecom power shelf that is shallow (210 mm or 8.3”) and only 41.5 mm (1.6”) high.

The new Flatpack S rectifiers deliver 1000W of power and can be used in both the two-slot and three-slot Flatpack S power shelves. Additional systems with higher power ratings are planned for future release.

The Flatpack S shelves also can be equipped with 1000W, 24V rectifiers for industrial applications.

“As growing data traffic drives the rollout of high speed mobile and fixed data services, the load is pushed towards the edge of the network and space becomes an increasingly important issue,” said Morten Schoyen, chief marketing officer at Eltek. “The Flatpack S 48V delivers industry-leading high efficiency and power density, as well as advanced reliability and safety features in a small package that meets this demand.”

The Flatpack S systems are managed by the Smartpack S controller, which monitors all active components and batteries, and offers extra warning and alarm relay outputs for attaching other alarm sensors.  The controller has a large display for onsite setup, status and log access.  These functions can also be set and monitored remotely.

The Smartpack S also features an extensive list of battery health and monitoring algorithms to extend the life of battery backup systems and ensure backup power when it is needed.

The Flatpack S DC power system can be configured for a variety of output power levels to meet individual application requirements. It can be flush-mounted or mid-mounted, has two plug-in battery breaker positions, low voltage battery disconnect (LBVD) and several load options. In addition, there is a pull-out drawer for easy access to the connection points and cable strain relief.

The Flatpack S 48V rectifiers are available now from Eltek’s sales force and resellers worldwide.

Meanwhile, Eltek announced that it has entered into an alliance with Stored Energy Systems to provide ruggedized DC power systems based on Eltek’s high efficiency and scalable switchmode power conversion technology to demanding industrial customers.

Under the new alliance, SENS will integrate Eltek’s core Flatpack 2 rectifier and Smartpack controller products into DC systems hardened for the rigors of industrial environments, focusing primarily on the power generation, power transmission & distribution and industrial controls markets.

The same process works with food. We consume energy store in whatever that we eat. We do use some of that energy to stay alive, like breathing or walking, but for most of us living in developed markets, there is a surplus. A lot of that energy gets store as fat in our bodies – for a raining day, which usually doesn’t come for most us since we get regular meals – so we go to the gym to use up that energy to stay fit.

Now a gym in the UK is looking to harness all that excess human energy, by hooking up generators to its gym equipment. According to this report, the Green Heart Gym in Hull, England now has equipment that will generate electricity as users work out.

The report says that the power will go to feed the facility’s LED lighting, which should work, but its assertion that such power can go to power other application in the community is a bit far fetched. Unless the gym is equipped with some sophisticated power storage and transmission equipment, it is highly unlikely that power from gym goers will be sufficient to support applications outside the immediate vicinity of the facility.

On the other hand, it is a pretty cool concept. Imagine a system at remote cell sites relying on wind and sun. When those resources are not available for any reason, why not have a crank, or treadmill for local users to power up the equipment. With some of the ultra low powered site equipment being development, it just might work.

Cotecna is the foremost supplier of transit monitoring services with its Cotrack® solution, helping governments to fight fraud and secure the transport of sensitive merchandise such as petroleum products, according to the companies. Cotecna first installed Cotrack in Senegal in 2009 and is backed by more than 38 years of experience in customs and border control solutions and in the implementation and operation, in challenging environments, of complex solutions involving very specialized and advanced technologies.

For its part, Orange Business has over 200 dedicated experts working on M2M solutions, providing services that include consulting, design, innovation, integration, project management and service management.

M2M solutions from Orange allow machines, devices and objects to communicate in real time without human intervention and can be integrated with communication tools, such as the Internet, networks, and telephone systems, necessary for an optimal track and trace solution, Orange said, adding that it now offers a long-lasting, adapted SIM that can cope with extreme conditions and can be used anywhere in the world.

Through this Cotecna-Orange Business Services partnership, Cotecna will be able to propose specific Orange M2M solutions in many market segments. Already, the added value of this partnership has been clearly proven in the development of an exclusive turn-key transit monitoring solution, which has been successfully operating in the West African country of Togo since December 2011.

Pierre-Olivier Pellegrin, senior vice president Security & Inspection Technology, Cotecna, said:  “As a company that prides itself on its flexibility and ability to provide specific tailor-made solutions for our clients, the capability of Orange to supply such a comprehensive package of technologies across a global landscape is of utmost importance to Cotecna’s expansion.”

Helmut Reisinger, senior vice president, Orange Business Services Europe. “Orange has created M2M solutions in a wide spectrum of industry sectors. Our M2M and industry expertise provides a solid foundation for Cotecna’s plans to implement M2M solutions tailored to the secure transit monitoring industry. Business M2M is a perfect example of how Orange is helping customers like Cotecna use innovative technology to evolve their business models, even into fast growing emerging markets.

Singapore Serangoon Data Center is located in northeastern Singapore. The tier III+ data center offers co-location, cloud services, NTT Com’s global network services and other related services. Key features are specifically designed to cater to companies in the financial, information technology and manufacturing sectors. The data center is connected directly to the Asia Submarine-cable Express (ASE), NTT Com’s new undersea cable offering high-speed, high-reliability network environment between Singapore and other Asian locations including Japan. The facility hosts 2,500 racks in a total server room area measuring 5,000 square meters. Investment in the facility is about 12.4 billion JPY (approximately SGD 190 million).

In that way, energy efficiency is probably not on the top of the list of deciding factors when the Singapore site was selected, but it doesn’t mean NTT Com shelved any concept of being environmentally responsible altogether.

In fact, the Singapore site is a stunning example how high performance doesn’t necessarily have to mean compromises in sustainability. True, that the site in the middle of a busy city isn’t ideal for many standard green practices, like customised free air cooling, or accessing renewable energy resources, or even custom construction that improve energy efficiency. On the other hand, it doesn’t mean you can’t still do all you can to ensure a high level of sustainability performance.

For the Serangoon Data Centre, NTT has obviously put in a lot of thought into the design. Green features include closing off a side of the building and painting it gray, as well as deploying so-called horizontal louvers on other facades, just to minimise solar (heat) gain. NTT has also put in a green roof for the main facility and over the parking lot with foliage, a rainwater tank to collect water for irrigating those plants, and a solar panel on the roof for supplemental power.

“The development towards a Networked Society is increasing complexity of networks and business for operators. It also creates a market more and more driven by consumer needs as consumers can choose from an abundance of brands, products and services when communicating, sharing, and socializing. As the capacity and capabilities of the networks’ opens up for new innovations and business opportunities competition is also increasing, or ‘the market is hyper competitive and highly dynamic,’ as Akshay Lamba, from Indian operator MTS put it. On top of this many operators face a financial pressure,” Ericsson said.

All that complexity means that network operators must now prioritise their operational focus.

“In this context the Managed Services model can play a vital part in operators’ strategies as it frees up resources and enable specialization, higher focus on user experience and customer relationships and improve innovation power, agility and speed. All key for sustainable business differentiation and success in the Networked Society,” added Ericsson.

Ericsson adds that the nature of managed services is also changing to adapt to more consumer-oriented services. Instead of traditional network operations-centric models, managed services is now shifting towards user and service-centric models.

“The main objective is not only to deliver on certain technical key performance indicators but to proactively assure that user services are delivered at the expected quality,” Ericsson said. “This shift of focus requires a broader, holistic perspective including the network, the IT environment, the applications and the devices as the user experience is determined by all these parts.”

The message goes like this:

The Broadband Commission for Digital Development issued a ‘call to action’ to include information and communication technologies (ICT) as catalysts for sustainable development when delegates gather in New York today to continue negotiations ahead of the Rio+20 conference.

The call to include ICT networks, services and applications as enablers of sustainable development was issued at the start of the all-important second round of negotiations on the proposed outcomes for the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). In a world where more people now have access to a mobile phone than to clean drinking water or a bank account, information and communication technologies, in particular broadband connectivity, offer an unparalleled platform to host an array of development services, such as mobile payment systems, e-Health applications, earth observation services and, increasingly, e-Government. Inclusion of a strong reference to the catalytic role of ICTs and broadband in the Rio+20 roadmap will help ensure solutions are found to meet the challenges of sustainable development in a rapidly evolving world where technology is increasingly central to all aspects of society.

The ‘Call to Action’ from the Broadband Commission for Digital Development comes just a few weeks after the launch of its report, ‘The Broadband Bridge, linking ICTs with climate action for a low carbon economy’ in Ohrid, Macedonia. The report presents ten recommendations for policy-makers and global leaders to utilize ICTs to accelerate global progress towards a sustainable, low-carbon future. It also urges leaders to: ‘bring convergence to ICT policy formulation so that it aligns with other policy areas such as energy, health, education and climate in order to maximize impact’. Rio+20 provides a vital opportunity to mainstream ICTs and broadband in achieving sustainable development.

“It is vital that information and communication technologies are given due recognition in the outcome of Rio+20 as ICTs provide the critical technological solutions needed to attain sustainable development for all humankind and the planet we live on,” ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré said. “ ICTs promote the integration of ‘smarter’ and more energy-efficient economic growth, social development and environmental protection; failure to recognize the power of ICTs for development could very well lead to a ‘Future we don’t want’.”

All the political and socio-economical arguments aside, how can anyone not include ICT in any kind of discussion on the future of the world is beyond me. It touches all aspect of modern society, all facets of global business, and is at the core of how we interact with each other as a global community. Whether that impact is good – or bad – needs to be explored if we are going to really understand what the future is going to bring.

“Even as we note the 100 year anniversary of that maritime tragedy, we need to consider the fragility of another highly-regarded engineering marvel –our electrical grid, which is often called the most complex machine ever built,” wrote Christine Hertzog, a consultant at SGL Partners, a strategy advisory firm focused on smart grid and M2M business sectors. “It has worked remarkably well for the past 130 years, but if the grid was a ship sailing in the Atlantic now, it has to dodge dangerous icebergs ahead.”

The grid is liken to the doomed trans-oceanic luxury passenger liner in three aspects, noted Hertzo, who is also active in the NIST Cyber Security Working Group Data Privacy subgroup.

First there was a false sense of security, created by over confidence of the capabilities of the Titanic by the captain and crew, which ultimately led to the disaster. The same false sense of security was emerging with smart grids. Hertzog points out that the existing grid was built on ‘security through obscurity,’ which now fades as grids become connected to the internet.

The Titanic also wasn’t prepared when the unimaginable happened and didn’t carry enough lifeboats. Similarly, there is a lack of failover strategies in today’s electricity grid, especially in regards to power generation. Most grids today relied on too few sources of generation for their load, hence are vulnerable to massive outages from the failure of a relatively few assets.

Lastly, utilities are like the operator and passengers of the Titanic, and have an “inability to think the unthinkable.” While utilities are focused on keeping the lights on, they have yet to investigate potential threat scenarios. “Their scenarios have to include ‘what if a concerted cyber attack disables our main generation sources AND transmission facilities?’  This type of thinking exposes the unthinkable – the grid’s reliability is threatened by its lack of resiliency,” Hertzog wrote.

“For many security experts, it is not a question of if, but rather when the grid will be the victim of a major cyber attack. Will our electric utilities and policy makers learn to avoid or minimize failures based on the lessons from past catastrophes, or are we doomed to sit in the dark because we failed to think the unthinkable?”

In an online interview for a documentary film called, ‘Take Back Your Power‘, Chalk – dubbed a ‘hacking expert’ by the filmmakers – asserted a 100% certainty of catastrophic failure of the energy grid within 3 years.

“We’re in a state of crisis,” said Chalk in a press release issued by TheBigPitcher Films. “The front door is open and there is no lock to be had. There is not a power meter or device on the grid that is protected from hacking – if not already infected – with some sort of trojan horse that can cause the grid to be shut down or completely annihilated.”

“One of the most amazing things that has happened to mankind in the last 100 years is the Internet. It’s given us possibility beyond our wildest imagination. But we also know the vulnerabilities that exist inside of it. And then we have the backbone, the power grid that powers our nations. Those two are coming together. And it’s the smart meter on your home or business that’s now allowing that connectivity.”

Chalk also challenged governments, media, and technology vendors to demonstrate “one piece of digital technology that is hack-proof,” pledging to crack any system presented.

“The computer companies that are involved, the manufacturers that are involved, bring forward a technology and I will show you that it’s penetrable,” said Chalk. “I’ll do it on national TV, I’ll do it anywhere. But I can guarantee you 100% that there is nothing out there today — nothing — that can’t be penetrated.”

The filmmakers also highlighted recent examples of concern over smart grid security from security experts such as Doug Powell, manager, SMI Security, Privacy & Security, for Canadian utility BC Hydro, as well as industry insiders like former CIA Director James Woolsey.

Powell points out that smart meters represents “a new potential threat vector,” while Woolsey asserts that “the so-called ‘smart grid’ that is as vulnerable as what we’ve got now is not smart at all. It is really, really stupid.”

On top of those views, US Inspector General Gregory Friedman also warned of potential vulnerabilities, stating in an audit released in January: “Without a formal risk assessment and associated mitigation strategy, threats and weaknesses may go unidentified and expose… the system to an unacceptable level of risk.”

According to the filmmakers, the audit found that energy officials knew of these weaknesses but approved funding for projects anyway. “The initial weaknesses had not always been fully addressed, and did not include a number of security practices commonly recommended for federal government and industry systems.”

With strong criticism to the smart grid now coming from many directions, energy corporations and governments now have the challenge to explain to an increasingly unapproving public why they continue to fast-track smart grid installations, the filmmakers said.

“Citizen groups and organizations throughout the US, Canada and Europe have launched legal actions to stop the installation of smart meters. They cite issues such as cost increases, health risks, privacy concerns, grid vulnerability and the lack of democratic process,” the filmmakers said. “In Chalk’s home province of British Columbia, Citizens for Safe Technology ( www.citizensforsafetechnology.org ) and the BC Coalition to Stop Smart Meters are leading a growing challenge.”

Options for opting out of the smart metering program have been announced in markets including California, Maine, Vermont, Louisiana, Michigan, Connecticut, Quebec, the UK and the Netherlands. In the US, several regions including the counties of Santa Cruz and Marin are enforcing outright moratoriums.

“Unless we wake up and realize what we’re doing, there is 100% certainty of total catastrophic failure of the entire power infrastructure within 3 years,” said Chalk. “This could actually be worse than a nuclear war, because it would happen everywhere. How governments and utilities are blindly merging the power grid with the Internet, and effectively without any protection, is insanity at its finest.”

The full video interview with David Chalk can be seen on www.thepowerfilm.org . The feature film documentary ‘Take Back Your Power’, which critically examines the smart grid program, will be released online this spring.

• IP traffic will quadruple by 2014 due to video
• 50 billion devices on the Internet by 2020
• 30% of all data to pass through the cloud by 2020

There are some pretty daunting data points, like the fact that a city the size of San Francisco will be built every month for the next two decades. The good news is that networks, by connecting people, induces innovation, which enables new markets, new ways of interaction.

According to the market researchers, utilities have so far ignored public cellular networks for their smart grid initiatives, but that is about to change. A confluence of factors is leading a major shift in how utilities view public cellular options as they roll out smart grid infrastructure projects, Pike said.

“Carriers and integrators have awakened to the unique opportunity of the smart grid. It is no longer just another general vertical market application,” says vice president Bob Gohn. “With new pricing and service offerings specifically tailored for the large number of endpoints but relatively low aggregate data volume typical of grid applications, public cellular is becoming a real competitor to private utility-owned networks. The end result is a significant and growing monthly stream of revenue to the carrier, without taxing the carrier’s network resources.”

According to Pike Research, global annual service revenue from public cellular network nodes in smart grid applications will surpass $1 billion by 2020, representing a 27% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2011 to 2020. A cumulative total of 73 million cellular M2M communication nodes will be shipped for use in smart grid applications during the period from 2011 through 2020, the cleantech market intelligence firm finds.

A major factor for the surge is the European Union’s much-publicised 20-20-20 mandate, which aims to reduce EU GHG emission by at least 20% below 1990 levels, deploy 20% of renewable energy for the EU, and a 20% reduction in energy use.

Europe is the leading region for public cellular node unit shipments and revenue through the remainder of the decade, Pike said. Europe will also likely lead the market in annual service revenue, due largely to the sheer volume of aggregate data being sent by the region’s smart meters, as well as the smaller (yet steadily growing) number of nodes being used for applications such as distribution automation and substation automation.