Project

Intelligrid Program Network Engineering & Systems Integration

Ameren’s Intelligrid Network Engineering and System Integrations program is a focused effort to design and implement a private, packet-based communications network to upgrade the utility’s existing network infrastructure to Ethernet at nearly 650 sites.

The $50 million program includes mapping and collecting data on the network of approximately 400 transmission substations and deploying a build-out consisting of fiber and multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) technology. The Intelligrid program prepares the company for the integration of future network solutions such as long-term evolution (LTE).

Our team has led the business planning, detailed design, development of construction documents and device deployment for the initiative throughout eastern Missouri and southeastern Illinois. With our support, Ameren began the build-out program in 2015, focusing on substations above 100-kV.

We brought immediate efficiency by collecting nearly all site data in a single visit and entering it into an Esri GIS database, enabling Ameren to expedite the scoping of 150 site designs by three months.

Client

Ameren

Location

Midwest U.S.

Region

Midwest

Services

Telecommunications

Fiber-Optic Infrastructure

Mission-Critical Networks

Long-Term Evolution (LTE)

Industry

Telecommunications

Case Study

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Building Out a Private Network Across Hundreds of Sites  

The GIS application allowed better planning around outages required for reconductoring, avoiding interface gaps between scopes and enabling better organization of key tasks. The consolidation of scoping documents and team reviews in a single platform supported more efficient resolution of flagged issues. Cross-team access to the database and a SharePoint notification system made for more seamless collaboration.

In addition to the efficiency provided by the GIS system, our in-house integration lab environment opened an opportunity for Ameren to test and validate interoperability solutions before deploying them. This testing environment saved Ameren several weeks of upfront troubleshooting during deployment and provided confidence in the configurations ultimately proven to be successful and used to reprogram routers.