This must be the fastest evolution of a technical conference in history. It started last October with the bare germ of an idea for a Smart Grid conference. Then (fanfare!), on January 19, the joint IEEE/National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Innovative Smart Grid Technologies conference opened at the NIST facility in Gaithersburg, Md., drawing roughly 700 attendees to its three days of panels and technical sessions.
Not only that, on the first day of the conference, NIST issued the 145-page “NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards, Release 1.0.” It’s an initial list of standards, a preliminary cybersecurity strategy, and other elements of a framework for an interoperable Smart Grid.
The document follows last June’s “Report to NIST on the Smart Grid Interoperability Standards Roadmap” from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). (See “Smart-Grid Report Maps Opportunities For U.S. Engineers")
The new NIST report’s executive summary says that it “describes a high-level conceptual reference model for the Smart Grid, identifies 75 existing standards that are applicable (or likely to be applicable) to the ongoing development of the Smart Grid, specifies 15 high-priority gaps and harmonization issues (in addition to cyber security) for which new or revised standards and requirements are needed, documents action plans with aggressive time lines by which designated standards-setting organizations (SSOs) will address these gaps, and describes the strategy to establish requirements and standards to help ensure Smart Grid cyber security.”
At this rate of development, the Smart Grid effort has more the air of a United States post-Sputnik technology mobilization than the stereotype of a slowly unfolding government program. The document notes that the first 25 of those standards, specifications, and guidelines are the product of three rounds of review and comment. The set of 50 additional standards was compiled on the basis of stakeholder inputs received during the second and third rounds of review and comment. To provide an idea of the scope of the standards effort, here is a summary of the first 25:
1. ANSI/ASHRAE 135-2008/ISO 16484-5 BACnet—A Data Communication Protocol for Building Automation and Control Networks: BACnet defines an information model and messages for building system communications at a customer’s site
2a. ANSI C12.1: Performance and safety tests for revenue meters
2b. ANSI C12.18: Protocol and optical interface for measurement devices
2c. ANSI C12.19/MC1219: Revenue-metering end device tables.
2d. ANSI C12.20: Revenue-metering accuracy specification and type tests
2e. ANSI C12.21: Transport of measurement device data over telephone networks
3a. ANSI/CEA 709.1-B-2002 Control Network Protocol Specification: Physical-layer protocol
3b. ANSI/CEA 709.2-A R-2006 Control Network Power Line (PL) Channel Specification: Physical-layer protocol
3c. ANSI/CEA 709.3 R-2004 Free-Topology Twisted-Pair Channel Specification: PA way to tunnel local operating network messages through an IP network using the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), providing a way to create larger internetworks
3d. ANSI/CEA-709.4:1999 Fiber-Optic Channel
4. DNP3: Used for substation and feeder device automation and for communications between control centers and substations
5. IEC 60870-6/TASE.2: Defines the messages sent between control centers of different utilities
6. IEC 61850 Suite: Defines communications within transmission and distribution and substations for automation and protection; being extended to cover communications beyond the substation to integration of distributed resources and between substations