Smart Grid Standards Self-Test: Do It Now (Or Feel the Pain Later)

By Matt Wakefield

As electric utilities are expanding existing or implementing new “Smart Grid” related systems, long-term investments should support a corporate strategic plan or Smart Grid roadmap to minimize the risk of technology obsolescence. At a high-level, a Smart Grid roadmap includes clarifying where you are now, where you want to be in the future, and the plan or “roadmap” to get there. A self-assessment of your current state of Smart Grid communication standards will support the “where you are now” portion of this plan and should include an end-to-end inventory of communication protocols used across your organization.

Driving the urgency of a self-assessment is the recent coordination by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop a framework to achieve interoperability of Smart Grid devices and systems. Stakeholders not engaged in the NIST activities unknowingly risk having current investments becoming prematurely obsolete and will be more challenged to achieve all the benefits of interoperability that are expected to be gained. In addition, many of the Smart Grid standards under review are immature or not even developed while some prominent standards are not included – emphasizing the need for stakeholder engagement to ensure your interests are considered.

In parallel or even prior to your self-assessment, a review of the over 70 specifications and standards in the The NIST Framework and Roadmap for Interoperability Standards Release 1.0 and the NIST Priority Action Plans should be performed. The resulting gaps between your communication protocols, standards and specifications and those identified by NIST will drive the priorities for your participation in the NIST activities.

Keeping abreast of the NIST activities allows you to understand the development and use of key standards and can be a resource to support a request for information (RFI) or request for proposal (RFP) of key systems. Active involvement ensures your interests are heard and provides an opportunity for inclusion and development of communication standards that affect your strategic plans.

As a follow-up step to the self-assessment, an analysis of the interoperability robustness of your current systems and the evaluation of new systems is important. EPRI’s Interoperability Robustness Checklist for Metering and Customer Communications is focused on demand response and energy service applications, but still has broad applicability across a wide range of Smart Grid systems.

The mindset that “standards will take care of themselves” can be a risky proposition as you may be heavily invested in a “Betamax” Smart Grid architecture while the rest of the industry is adopting “VHS.”

Matt Wakefield is a Program Manager at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). Wakefield manages EPRI’s five year Smart Grid demonstration initiative. He has over 22 years of energy industry experience applying information and communication technologies for real-time transactions between control centers, generators, markets and consumers.

.

More from the source ...

EPRI Website

2010 Power Delivery & Utilization Research

Contact EPRI

.

Related SGN resources ...

Smart Grid standards: How to Avoid Being a Standards Dinosaur

NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards, R 1.0 (pdf)

Handbook for Assessing Smart Grid Projects (pdf)

Smart Grid standards channel

.

Stay connected with SGN ...