Case Study: Central Lincoln PUD boosts network resilience with Ciena Carrier Ethernet

Converged IT/OT Network Amps Up Resilience for Central Lincoln People’s Utility District

Central Lincoln PUD, a public utility serving 55,000 residents along Oregon’s coast, needed to modernize an aging network while keeping critical power services reliable. Working with Ciena and SEL, the utility sought to move from separate IT and OT environments to a more scalable Carrier Ethernet foundation that could support both office applications and mission-critical substation communications.

Ciena helped deliver a converged IT/OT Carrier Ethernet substation WAN using its 3928 Platform, along with SEL integration for deterministic OT traffic and teleprotection. The solution unified networks, prioritized critical traffic, and improved resilience while reducing latency to 1 ms, boosting IT bandwidth from 1.5 Mb/s to 100 Mb/s, and cutting substation battery load from 500 watts to under 300 watts.

Central Lincoln PUD