A fantastic local company is building the network for our smart grid
Christopher McGrath (SJ Energy), Peter Smith (NetAdmins), and Carl Ozkaynak (SJ Energy).
We are very happy to have NetAdmins on our team. A competent partner to build and support the network foundation that our smart grid will be built on.
By Carl Ozkaynak
We’re in the process of advancing our smart grid, this is a big project at the intersection of information technology (IT) and engineering. But, until recently, Saint John Energy had a network built to run a small office. So Job #1 for us has been building a new IT network.
To help us do that, we hired a great company. So great, I want to tell you about them. Their name is NetAdmins and they are a local company that competed alongside fantastic, best in the world companies and won.
“We are a small part of a big vision to drive the next generation network of the grid.”
Shortly after I joined Saint John Energy this year I made the case for why we need to build a new network. There were limitations that would have prevented us from taking a single step toward a smart grid and we needed a network that has cybersecurity built into it from the very beginning and built to support a lot of innovation to come.
We distributed a Request for Proposals for equipment and expertise and NetAdmins, based right here in Quispamsis, won the bid based on capability and price. They are on the hook to set up our network for our brand new Control Centre, to rebuild our IT network, and to make sure it all meets new security standards.
Appropriately-sized and priced
Saint John Energy isn’t a big company. We’re also not a small business. What we learned from this experience is that it is important to find a right-sized offering for an operation of our size.
“Smaller companies tend to like buying from the big-box electronics stores, but there is so much more capability that can be enabled for a company of this size than that entry-level can enable”, says Peter Smith, President of NetAdmins.
“You might as well not do anything if you aren’t focused on security.”
“We understand the costs to get the capabilities needed, our architecture plan is sound and others often don't have one. We listened to what Saint John Energy needed to accomplish and brought back a custom solution that didn’t need to fit a mould we had for them. We designed a purpose-driven solution to meet business requirements instead of requiring them to conform to how we do things. We don’t normally employ cookie-cutter solutions”, Peter said.
He continued, “the need to standardize processes often drives larger service providers to limit the methods and technologies that they will employ at a certain scale, and they are really designed to meet needs for that large scale.” NetAdmins also has preferred pricing for government entities, which we are.
A capable and engaged partner
To let Peter tell his own story, “We’re very excited. We have worked with BC Hydro and it's nice to get back into the electrical/hydro space. It’s an exciting adventure to work on the smart grid - on stability, flexibility, agility, to allow them to expand at the drop of a hat but meet the new demands of monitoring and security - you might as well not do anything if you aren't focused on security. Because more is online with the smart grid, we had to put new layers of utility-grade security in place to make sure they can work in the new space while being protected.
“The communication network is an important foundation for smart grid. Saint John Energy is leading the pack out there. It is great to be part of a team that is thinking about more than just the tech and thinking about how we make sure we are the most efficient, to get the most for ratepayers, saving energy for them and on the power grid”.
“We are a small part of a big vision to drive the next generation network of the grid, with Saint John Energy who is leading the way.”
We are very happy to have NetAdmins on our team. A competent partner to build and support the network foundation that our smart grid will be built on.
Carl Ozkaynak is the Director of Smart Grid at Saint John Energy and is responsible for Smart Grid Engineering, Operations Technology, Information Technology, Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), Geospatial Information System (GIS), and Distribution Control Center (DCC).