European Commission gives thumbs up to 'broadband over powerlines' project
The European Commission has awarded an 'excellent' rating to the OPERA 2 (Open PLC European Research Alliance) project, which aims to develop an open standard for the next generation of powerline technology. Powerline technology uses national electricity grids to carry low cost broadband access for a wide range of applications, including e-learning, telephony, smart home, new intelligent grid services, video-on-demand, security and e-health. In its review, the European Commission gave OPERA the highest possible score for an EU funded project, praising it for its solid contribution to international standardisation activities and excellent field trials. The latter have been deployed to demonstrate the scalability of the technology developed within the OPERA project. 'We are very encouraged that the European Commission has recognised the valuable work undertaken to date by the members of the consortium,' stated project coordinator, Javier Arriola of Iberdrola. 'Within the framework of a very ambitious project, the Commission particularly endorsed the results of the joint contribution with the UPA [Universal Powerline Association] that has been submitted to the standardisation work underway within the IEEE [Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers] P1901 Working Group. The Commission also endorsed the results of three successful deployments in the field that tested the strength of the specification in different topologies in real world scenarios,' Mr Arriola continued. Working with the UPA, over the next two years OPERA aims to develop a new generation PLC (Power Line Communications) access standard to accelerate the adoption of low cost and high performance broadband access across powerlines. OPERA is funded under the EU Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) and specifically addresses the theme 'Broadband for all' which falls under the responsibility of the Information Society and Media Directorate General. It will run for the next two years.