In 1998, Louisville Gas and Electric (LG&E) Energy Corporation merged with Kentucky Utilities Energy Company to become one of the largest independent system operators in the Midwest – now part of the E.ON™ family of energy and natural gas companies. Since the merger, LG&E’s new company owned two legacy UHF conventional land mobile radio networks that continued to operate, and were operated, as independent systems without the interoperability it now needed between them. Macro explored, evaluated, and ranked different technical and operational approaches to amalgamate these two systems into a single, seamless, interoperable, service area-wide, wireless voice and mobile data network. Based on our firm’s legacy systems analysis, voice and mobile data channel loading measurements, user interviews, FCC regulatory considerations, gap analysis, and technology trade-off assessment, we recommended LG&E seek a seamless, modern, APCO Project 25 compliant, digital narrowband, fully integrated UHF two-way radio system serving all communication needs.

Once accepted, our firm developed this high-level system configuration and technology plan into a full-fledged detail design, complete with UHF system diagrams and frequency plan, coverage prediction plots, microwave/fiber-optic backhaul topology and path analyses, tower site redevelopment drawings, subscriber fleetmap, fault tolerance and redundancy features, and system implementation/roll-out strategy. Finally, our recommended detailed system design was supported by a financially sound business case analysis that forecasted an internal rate of return (IRR) that met LG&E’s capitalization standards.