New product line and industry expert to highlight rugged solutions for Smart Grid modernization
Hiawatha, Iowa, January 27, 2020 – Crystal Group, Inc., a leading designer and manufacturer of rugged computer and electronic hardware, will introduce its new Crystal Group ES (Energy Series) product line at DistribuTECH as U.S. power companies undergo a major transformation to upgrade and modernize critical energy infrastructure.
Built to deliver state-of-the-art power grid capabilities with reliable, secure performance in the most extreme, remote, unpredictable conditions, the Crystal Group ES line of servers and embedded computers combine rugged hardware, the latest Intel® scalable processors, and prominent security features.
The impetus of the new Crystal Group ES line was to support the Common Substation Platform (CSP), which is using machine virtualization to transform power grid reliability, system resilience and security, developed by Southern California Edison.
“Crystal Group’s vision, ability to solve complex engineering challenges, and collaborative approach in developing the hardware systems needed to support machine virtualization in the harsh substation environment,” said Phil Carey, recently-retired Southern California Edison enterprise architect.
Carey, a highly-respected technical thought leader in the energy industry who helped pioneer the CSP, will join Crystal Group in booth 3429 during DistribuTECH, January 28-30, in San Antonio, Texas. Along with Crystal Group, Carey will discuss the critical role rugged, reliable computer hardware will play in future-proofing the Smart Grid.
“Seamless operations across more than 70,000 power substations is critical to our daily livelihood and homeland security,” said Chad Hutchinson, director of Engineering at Crystal Group. “With this many sites—most of which are in remote locations with limited onsite staff—it’s not feasible to connect multiple substations to central data centers. Each substation needs its own system to ensure constant monitoring, real-time alerts, automation, and remote-control management.
Designed and tested to meet IEEE and IEC standards, process massive amounts of data, and protect against potential security breaches, the Crystal Group ES provides rugged, reliable performance where traditional computers fail.
About Crystal Group, Inc.
Crystal Group, Inc., a technology leader in rugged computer hardware, specializes in the design and manufacture of custom and commercial rugged servers, embedded computing, networking devices, displays and data storage for high reliability in harsh environments. An employee-owned small business founded in 1987, Crystal Group provides the defense, government and industrial markets with in-house customization, engineering, integration, configuration management, product lifecycle planning, warranty and support services.
Crystal Group products meet or exceed IEEE, IEC and military standards, including MIL-STD-810, 167-1, 461 and MIL-S-901, are backed by an industry-leading, 5-plus-year warranty with in-house support and are manufactured in the company’s Hiawatha, Iowa, U.S.A., facility certified to AS9100D quality management standards.
© 2020 Crystal Group, Inc. All rights reserved. All marks are property of their respective owners. Design and specifications are subject to change.