Journey to the next-gen smart grid supported by 5G MCN

In our previous blog, we explored the key challenges facing the utilities sector — digitalization, decentralization, and sustainability. We discussed why mission-critical networks are becoming essential, the benefits of long-term evolution (LTE) for unifying communication systems, and what utilities need in terms of coverage, latency, and reliability.

Our conclusion? Private mission-critical networks. These networks offer the control and security utilities demand, with public networks as a useful backup option.

In this follow-up, we deep-dive into the practical journey utilities undertake to build resilient and sustainable grids. We outline the steps involved in deploying mission-critical networks, the importance of spectrum planning, and how 5G technology is unlocking transformative capabilities for utilities and their communities. From initial trials to large-scale rollouts, we highlight key use cases and the evolving role of private and public networks in supporting everything from real-time grid operations to environmental monitoring.

5G adoption in the utilities sector is slower mainly due to limited access to private spectrum, which is crucial for secure and reliable mission-critical networks. Additionally, the business case remains uncertain because the ecosystem of 5G devices tailored for utilities is still developing. Unlike other industries, many utilities do not require high bandwidth or ultra-low latency for most applications, so they must carefully prioritize use cases that justify the investment. These practical challenges explain why utilities are taking a cautious, measured approach to 5G deployment.

In our next post, we will examine the migration of mission-critical networks from LTE to 5G.

The utility journey towards a resilient, sustainable grid

The journey towards a resilient, sustainable grid for utilities involves digital transformation to mission-critical networks, providing reliable and resilient connectivity to support grid operations. As utilities integrate renewable energy sources, they require communications links to new locations and devices, emphasizing the need for networks capable of operating during power outages. Hence, utilities often opt for private mission-critical networks, which provide control over network specifications and quality of service, addressing security concerns and optimizing grid operations.

Planning for these networks is complex, involving spectrum allocation tailored to each country's availability, which can take up to 10 years, necessitating lobbying efforts to secure a suitable spectrum. Detailed deployment planning is crucial, as spectrum availability varies widely across countries. Utilities prioritize power outage scenarios in their network requirements due to the critical safety and financial implications. The focus then shifts to supporting normal grid operations and digitalizing services. Initial deployments often involve public mobile networks, later transitioning to private networks for enhanced security and control.

Utilities sometimes begin with field trials, deploying initial devices on the smart grid to gain practical experience. The next step involves the phased deployment of mission-critical networks to leverage the available LTE ecosystem, followed by evolution to 5G with more complex use cases. This incremental approach allows utilities to evolve at their own pace, adding services modularly—from basic monitoring to advanced real-time grid flexibility enabled by 5G and edge infrastructure for various applications, including smart meter communications, workforce management, and grid integration of energy communities. These networks enable a data-driven infrastructure, enhancing grid resilience and functionality through semi-automated decision-making and real-time optimization.

Figure 1: Incremental deployment of grid services

As utility networks become increasingly complex and dynamic, 5G technology offers a wide range of advanced use cases that extend beyond the capabilities of traditional LTE solutions. Notable among these are:

• Active grid management, powered by near real-time data exchange, allows for more precise and efficient control of power flows. 
• Fault location, isolation, and service restoration (FLISR) utilizes real-time communication to rapidly detect and isolate faults, restoring power more efficiently and improving overall grid resilience. 
• Real-time inertia estimation is another critical use case, enabling synthetic inertia to support grid stability as conventional power sources are phased out. 
• AI-driven predictive maintenance and data-based grid optimization are facilitated by the vast volumes of information gathered from digitized assets. As electrification expands into transport and heating, 5G’s reliability and low latency are essential for ensuring system responsiveness. 
• Augmented and virtual reality for remote maintenance, immersive training, and real-time situational awareness highlight the need for broadband capabilities, further showcasing the transformative potential of 5G in the utility sector.

The Ericsson approach, offering dual-mode LTE and 5G networks, facilitates this seamless evolution in technology, supporting grid management locally and reducing potential disruptions at regional and national levels.

Optimizing spectrum allocation: Key strategies for building resilient and sustainable utility grids

Access to a dedicated frequency spectrum is essential for utilities to maintain full control over their communication networks, especially during power outages. Utilities often need to lobby national authorities to obtain appropriate frequencies. Although organizations like the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the European Utilities Telecom Council (EUTC), and the 450 MHz Alliance are working to improve the situation, progress remains slow. Meanwhile, fragmented spectrum assignments pose challenges for device manufacturers, making it harder to deliver standardized communication solutions for utilities.

Bandwidth requirements are increasing as energy systems grow more complex due to digitalization, climate change, and the electrification of transport and heating. Many smart grid applications need at least 2 × 3 MHz — or even 2 × 5 MHz — to operate efficiently and reliably.

Choosing the right type of spectrum is equally important. Licensed spectrum provides controlled and predictable performance essential for critical applications. In contrast, unlicensed spectrum is accessible and suitable for non-critical services, but it may encounter congestion and interference, which compromises reliability. Nonetheless, unlicensed spectrum remains valuable for expanding non-critical communications, offering flexibility and scalability.

Figure 2: Use case evolution through the spectrum

Utility services vary widely in their demands for coverage, capacity, and latency, and each part of the spectrum plays a distinct role. Sub-1 GHz excels in wide-area coverage for low-bandwidth applications, mid-band supports higher data throughput for more advanced services, while the high-frequency spectrum enables low-latency, high-capacity use cases that are shaping the future of utility operations.

What benefits do 5G networks offer to utilities?

Designed for industrial rather than consumer use, 5G offers utilities higher levels of security, reliability, and availability, making it more suitable than previous wireless technologies such as LTE. With features tailored to the needs of critical infrastructure, 5G enables more efficient, secure, and resilient operations across the energy value chain. Private 5G networks enhance the capabilities of LTE, offering additional benefits.

For utilities navigating the digital transformation of the energy sector, 5G presents a foundation for enhanced performance, flexibility, and long-term sustainability — not only through its advanced capabilities for grid operations but also through broader network-level benefits, including improved energy efficiency in infrastructure, seamless interoperability, and increased vendor flexibility.

• Real-time grid operations through low latency: The ultra-low latency of 5G networks in high band spectrum empowers utilities to implement advanced applications like real-time grid monitoring, operational digital twins, and predictive control. These capabilities improve decision-making speed and grid responsiveness, resulting in greater efficiency and resilience.
• Enhanced security for critical infrastructure: 5G introduces advanced security features critical for infrastructures like power utilities. These include a flexible authentication framework, protection against false base stations, and strong integrity protection of user data over the air interface, ensuring robust communication security. Furthermore, security enhancements introduced in 3GPP Release 17 strengthen 5G’s effectiveness with features such as user plane integrity protection, secure proximity-based services, and secure mechanisms for time synchronization and industrial IoT communications. [1]
• Global standardization and interoperability: 5G ensures smooth interworking with existing LTE and NB-IoT technologies, offering utilities flexible and reliable connectivity options.  As a globally standardized technology, 5G benefits from continuous updates and support from a diverse ecosystem that includes network, device, and utilities application vendors. 
• Energy efficiency and environmental benefits: Designed with enhanced energy efficiency in mind, 5G significantly reduces the CO2 footprint compared to LTE and older networks with power management techniques, making it a more sustainable choice for utilities aiming to lower their environmental impact. [2]
• Enhanced grid synchronization and automation: 5G enables utilities to achieve highly precise time synchronization across the power grid through enhanced support for time-sensitive networking and deterministic networking. This synchronization is critical for integrating variable renewable energy sources and supporting devices such as phasor measurement units (PMUs). By leveraging these capabilities, utilities can enhance grid automation, improve frequency control, and maintain overall stability.
• Accurate asset positioning and emergency response: 5G advanced provides utilities with enhanced positioning capabilities, enabling precise location tracking even in environments where GPS signals are weak or unavailable. With accuracy down to 20-30 cm, this capability supports efficient smart grid management, reliable asset tracking, and faster emergency response. Knowing the exact location of sensors and equipment helps utilities quickly address issues, reduce downtime, and improve overall safety. [3]
• Network slicing for flexibility and resilience: For utilities, network slicing enables the creation of dedicated virtual network segments tailored to specific operational needs, such as real-time grid control, smart metering, or workforce communication, each with guaranteed levels of performance, security, and latency.

Network slicing uses software-defined networking (SDN) to enable dynamic allocation and optimization of network resources to support diverse utility use cases with greater flexibility and resilience. In the example below, each slice is optimized for communication, security, speed/throughput, or responsiveness/latency.

Figure 3: 5G Network slicing implemented across the 5G network

Figure 3 shows four different network slices (A, B, C, and D) that are configured for four different use cases using a combination of common and dedicated resources.  All slices share a common capability for internet connectivity, ensuring resilience.

1. Slice A is dedicated to communications.  It would have additional policy functionality for mission-critical voice.
2. Slice B is dedicated to utilities private LAN with a focus on multimedia and security.
3. Slice C is dedicated to high throughput to allow high-resolution substation video monitoring and AR/VR at substations.
4. Slice D is dedicated to low latency with network infrastructure close to the edge to enable low-latency use cases for FLISR or direct transfer trips at utilities.

The design of the 5G network ensures that capabilities remain distinct from the 5G core through the transport and radio access network (RAN), catering to different types of devices.

Reusing IoT devices in 5G

In a utility network, IoT devices, such as smart meters, account for over 90 percent of the deployed devices. They have streamlined performance requirements due to their low individual traffic volume, which enables economies of scale at lower price points per device.  

As IoT devices evolve from private LTE to private 5G, affordable price points and technical simplicity enable the business case.  Figure 4 illustrates different throughput capabilities (LTE-M, NB-IoT, Cat-1 through Cat-4). 

• At the low end, there is the NB-IoT device category (Cat-NB1) that operates at kilobits/sec (kbps), but with deep coverage, with the ability to penetrate walls and reach basements.
• As a next capability choice, LTE-M device category (Cat-M1) operates at megabits/sec (Mbps), while maintaining deep coverage.
• As a default, LTE offers 10s Mbps of speed depending on the available spectrum with consumer-level coverage that we get on our smartphones. The speeds are classified as Cat-1 to Cat-4 depending on the throughput.

Figure 4: NB-IoT and Cat-M1 continue into 5G, along with eRedCap

As we evolve from LTE to 5G, we continue with NB-IoT and Cat-M1 capabilities into 5G and introduce “reduced capability” (RedCap) and eRedCap in 5G. These fulfill 5G massive machine-type communications (mMTC) requirements.

RedCap [4] is introduced for low device, network complexity (corresponding to the 100s of Mbps in 5G). While reducing modem complexity, RedCap maintains high peak data rates to serve more demanding IoT use cases.  RedCap devices have low complexity and peak rates below 250 Mbps. 

The eRedCap device type introduced in 3GPP Release 18 in 2024 is further simplified, with its peak rate capped at 10 Mbps. An eRedCap device will support low-to-mid frequency bands (such as < 6 GHz), not high-frequency bands (>6 GHz).

Energy efficiency for IoT devices: 5G enhances energy efficiency for devices that transmit small amounts of data sporadically, like smart meters and environmental sensors. This enables these devices to operate much longer without frequent battery replacements, providing utilities with reliable and cost-effective monitoring solutions. The improved power management helps utilities optimize their operations, enabling quicker response times, better resource tracking, and ultimately reducing costs for consumers. [3]

Considerations for public networks as a fallback option for private mission-critical network coverage

Figure 5: Private networks use public networks for fallback coverage

As private wireless networks are adopted for mission-critical coverage on the smart grid, public networks will transition to providing secondary fallback coverage, ensuring 100 percent coverage reliability across both primary private LTE/5G and secondary public LTE/5G networks.  

As private networks evolve from LTE to 5G, the transition may start in phases, starting from islands of coverage while the private network expands with deployment to provide contiguous coverage. In this example, it is assumed, that the public network already offers complete 5G coverage, while private network deployment is ongoing.

Consider the blue-colored public network and violet-colored private network in Figure 5.  It is considered that the private network is either on the low-band spectrum (IMSI-L) or midband spectrum (IMSI-M).  The public network is considered to be LTE/5G capable and operating in low band and/or midband spectrum

The following are some considerations from a device and network perspective:  

Network considerations:

• For real-time use cases on the private network, it is important that the transition from private to public networks is executed by a disruption-free handover rather than through a delayed reselection to the 5G public network.  This requires that the inter-network configuration is established between the private and public networks to facilitate handover
• For mission-critical use cases, any special and additional bearers established on the private network need to transition to the public network. This would require that the public network has access to the corresponding policy set up to provide the same level of service to the running mission-critical use case that has suffered a fallback to the public network. To prioritize mission-critical use cases that fall back from the underlying private network, the public network may need to configure a network slice dedicated to utility traffic. The slice selection mechanism must consider the diverse capabilities of various devices falling back from the private network.   
• Shared networks: There are multiple methods of sharing network resources across public and private networks. 

Figure 6: Public Operator A, Private Operator B using Network Sharing Concepts

Some of the network sharing options above show:

• Geographically split networks: Assets are separated between the private and public networks for the applications, core, RAN, and spectrum.  This is more established in initial utilities deployments.  
• Site sharing: This may involve a shared asset of the RAN site (eNodeB) that is separated in configuration between private and public networks, and otherwise separate coverage areas and assets for private and public networks.  Devices fall back to the public network as needed.
• Multi-operator core networks (MOCN): In this deployment model, applications are dedicated to utilities, with shared assets for the public and private networks for the core, RAN, and spectrum.  This is best implemented with 5G network slicing to ensure reliability and assurance of utilities’ performance.

Device considerations:

• If the utility device is only capable of LTE, the public 5G network should be able to redirect the device to a public LTE network when it falls back from the private network.
• If the utility device is an LTE/5G mobile device such as MCPTT, it is possible that it is moving between either private LTE or private 5G to the public 5G network.  In this case, the public 5G network should be able to either redirect the device to an underlying LTE public network or provide 5G service, depending on the prevalent private network technology at that location.  
• Sometimes, the prevalent use case being executed on the private network may need 5G capabilities, as demanded by the device.  Additional device functionality may be needed to ensure the right technology is requested on the public network.
• If the fallback public network is configured with a dedicated slice for  utility traffic, the devices on the private network may need to be slice-aware during fallback to maintain priority and performance

Conclusion

5G offers advanced capabilities for smart grid digitalization — from superior latency and performance in mid-band and high-band spectrum to new features like network slicing, enhanced scheduling, and improved responsiveness across all spectrum deployments. These enhancements enable more advanced real-time and mission-critical use cases.

Building resilient, future-ready grids requires secure and reliable connectivity, and private mission-critical networks play a crucial role in delivering this. The advanced capabilities of 5G, especially in private mission-critical networks, unlock new, more demanding smart grid use cases and support critical real-time grid operations.

However, adoption takes time. Utilities face challenges around spectrum availability and the maturity of the 5G device ecosystem — both essential for migrating from LTE to 5G private networks. Most LTE-based smart grid IoT devices already have a migration path in 5G through NB-IoT, Cat-M1, and now the additional capability of eRedCap designed for 5G.

To maintain high resilience with continued fallback to public 5G networks, both devices and networks need to be capable of handling the increased capabilities and options presented by 5G.

As the 5G device ecosystem matures and spectrum becomes more widely available globally, utilities will be better positioned to evolve from LTE private networks to 5G private networks. With clear priorities and a strong focus on relevant use cases, 5G can unlock real transformation for future-ready, resilient smart grids.

More on the evolution from LTE to 5G private networks will be discussed in the next blog.

References

1. "Ericsson Blog: 5G Release 17: Overview of new RAN security features," October 2022.
2. "Ericsson report: On the road to breaking the energy curve," 2022.
3. "Ericsson technology review: 5G evolution toward 5G advanced: An overview of 3GPP releases 17 and 18," October 2021.
4. "Ericsson blog: RedCap and eRedCap – standardizing simplified 5G devices for the Internet of Things," 2024.

Further reading:

• Ericsson’s smart grid report
• Connected energy utilities
• Utilities need secure, fast, flexible, and adaptable connectivity solutions
• How 5G will bring increased capabilities to the grid
• Intelligent energy distribution with 5G
• How wireless will evolve for utilities over the next five years