Integrated solutions for ubiquitous use of electricity and cyber services

With the development of Broadband over Power Lines (BPL) technology, the electricity and cyber services require a new system's view of developing hybrid infrastructures with integrated services. This paper mainly explores the following three questions: a) what is state-of-the-art BPL research and applications?, b) what are the opportunities for integrated electricity and cyber services?, c) where the research should lead us and why? Existing efforts, including research issues and commercial products, solutions and services are presented in this paper. Status of the standardization in this area is also discussed. Besides the research topics, this paper points out the educational and training issues that will need to be addressed in the future by the education programs at various levels.