Hitachi Energy provides highly secure, always-on connectivity to enable grid modernization and advanced smart city applications

Hitachi Energy today introduced the TRO610 cellular router that provides state-of-the-art communications and cybersecurity, purpose-built to support industrial internet of things (IIoT) applications for utilities, smart cities, oil & gas, manufacturing, and mining operations. The TRO610 is part of Hitachi Energy’s wireless communication portfolio of high availability, high reliability, high throughput, and low latency products to future-proof mission-critical industrial and utility operations.

As intelligent field devices permeate across power distribution networks, the TRO610 provides greater efficiency by enabling a wider variety of edge compute applications. With advanced capabilities like edge computing and multiple secure connectivity options, the TRO610 lays the foundation for grid modernization and future grid applications.

“Advanced connectivity options play a significant role as utilities and industries increasingly adopt technology solutions either on-premise or via the cloud to digitalize and improve operations in an environmentally sustainable manner,” said Massimo Danieli, Managing Director of the Grid Automation business unit at Hitachi Energy. He added, “The TRO610 increases asset and application visibility in the field, enabling greater grid stability, new customer services, and a reduced total cost of ownership.”

“The compact and ruggedized form factor of the TRO610 provides communication to a wide range of existing and future ‘smart city’ services, including transportation, water, and wastewater management, energy transmission and distribution,” said Jim Frazer, Vice President, Smart Cities at leading technology research and advisory firm ARC Advisory Group. He added, “The TRO610’s edge compute capability, state-of-the-art cybersecurity, Bluetooth® connectivity option, industry standards compliance, and always-on cellular connectivity make it ideal for public agency applications as well as utility, petrochemical, and discrete manufacturing ecosystems.” 

The TRO610 is a small form-factor and economical router that’s ruggedized for operations in harsh environments. It provides an edge-compute platform to host custom applications and a Bluetooth option for sensor data connectivity.

In line with the 3GPP1 (3rd Generation Partnership Project) specification, the TRO610 operates on both public and private 3G, 4G, and 5G cellular networks across multiple frequencies, including CBRS (Citizens Broadband Radio Service), Anterix^TM, 410Mz, and 450MHz. The device is ideal for utility applications, especially power distribution networks, through its compliance and certification for IEEE 1613 and IEC 61850 standards.

The TRO610 can be easily managed through Hitachi Energy’s Supros unified network management and monitoring system. Supros simplifies installation with the low-touch deployment of wireless devices and remote terminal units (RTU) and supports over-the-air firmware updates.

The TRO610 supports a host of modern smart city applications such as EV charging stations, environmental health monitoring, traffic management, and public safety. For electric utilities, the TRO610 compliments Hitachi Energy’s solutions for battery storage monitoring, circuit breakers, reclosers, voltage monitors, and secondary substation monitoring, among others. It provides always-on cellular connectivity to field area networks (FAN) that underpin energy management applications and utilities’ distribution network operations.

In industries like oil & gas and mining, the TRO610 enables remote monitoring of assets like wellheads, storage tanks, pipeline infrastructure, sensors, mining vehicles, and other unmanned transportation in rural and remote areas under harsh conditions.

The Tropos TRO600 series wireless portfolio comprises a range of products that offer the best cellular and self-healing broadband mesh technologies. This includes the TRO620 hybrid router that combines cellular communication technology with Hitachi Energy’s patented broadband mesh functionality and edge compute capability.

Notes to editors:

1. The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP1) is an umbrella term for a number of standards organizations that develop protocols for mobile telecommunications.