Case Study: Dairyland Power achieves reliable, high-speed, cost-efficient wireless M2M communications with FreeWave

Rural Electric Cooperative Optimize Communications with FreeWave Wireless M2M Solutions

Dairyland Power is a rural electric cooperative serving more than 600,000 customers across a 45,000-square-mile area in four Midwest states and supplying 25 member distribution cooperatives and 17 municipal utilities. In 2000 the company needed a machine-to-machine communications system to monitor critical field data and streamline power delivery; its existing infrastructure was costly, complex, and pieced together from about 30 providers, and it struggled with remote locations, harsh weather and line-of-sight terrain.

After testing FreeWave’s radios, Dairyland deployed FreeWave FGR and HTPlus wireless M2M solutions as a single integrated network, replacing legacy circuits and analog cellular gear. The new system enabled real-time SCADA and AMI backhaul, fault detection and isolation, transmission control and higher-throughput applications, while ToolSuite diagnostics and 24/7 support simplified maintenance—resulting in lower costs, improved reliability, secure communications and measurable operational gains the cooperative is continuing to expand.

Dairyland Power