Logica ramps up smart grid business with Cisco

IT and business services provider, Logica Australia, has continued its push into the smart grid market by signing with Cisco to offer smart grid IP network design and infrastructure services to local energy and utilities companies.

Logica and IBM are the only companies currently reselling the Connected Grid portfolio, which includes home energy consumption control tools, virtualised data centres, switches, and routers.

The products are targeted at companies planning network upgrades across their IT networks to enable smart grids. Logica Asia Pacific CEO, Colin Holgate, said that Cisco approached the company due to its smart grid expertise.

“Communications infrastructure will play a critical role in how energy, water and gas are delivered to consumers, as the need to manage consumption for a more sustainable environment continues to increase,” he said in a statement.

Holgate added that Logica is supporting the world’s first national smart grid rollout with state-controlled electricity distributor Energias de Portugal (EDP) in Portugal and is working with Australia’s energy distribution companies to help them develop smart grid strategies.

A study by Logica released in December 2010 found the smart grid market was progressing at a fast pace in Australia with major energy providers – including Integral Energy, EnergyAustralia, SP AusNet, Western Power, Aurora Energy, Hydro Tasmania, and Ergon Energy – all either trialling or trialled smart grids in some form.

Holgate said in a statement that the emergence of smart grids mean technology vendors and IT service providers need to work together differently so customers could manage one partnership rather than multiple vendors.

According to Holgate, the industry will see a number of strategic relationships emerge over the next couple of years.

Follow Computerworld Australia on Twitter: @ComputerworldAU

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