Central Lincoln People’s Utility District recently selected Ciena, of Hanover, and Schweitzer Engineering Labs (SEL) technology to transform its power grid, which services 33,000 residents and 5,600 commercial and industrial customers in Central Oregon. This upgrade will allow Central Lincoln to merge both information and operational technology (IT/OT) traffic onto one network, while also achieving ultra-low latency rates for its teleprotection circuits, minimizing the possibility of a power outage.

“This deployment addresses the utility industry’s need to move away from siloed networks, which are complex and costly to manage. Ciena’s experience in designing networks that can scale to meet increasing bandwidth demand while delivering reliable, ultra-low-latency performance will play a critical role as Central Lincoln modernizes its network,” said Kevin Sheehan, chief technology officer for the Americas, Ciena.