US government releases smart grid framework

Saturday, 26 September 2009 16:27

A 90-page document released by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released on September 24 proposes 77 standards for smart grid development. The report also detailed 14 areas that the government agency will prioritize in order to facilitate development.

Utilities, regulators, and vendors have been waiting for this release from the NIST. The report details specific standards that utilities and developers will be expected to meet in their smart grid deployment. The institute will continue working on cybersecurity standards which should be released by the end of the year.

The NIST began working on a set of standards earlier this year in order to encourage cohesive smart grid development in the United States. A process that normally could take several years has been compressed into a few months.

“At stake is America’s energy future and the economic competitiveness of our nation,” said Commerce Secretary Gary Locke as he unveiled the NIST report at this week’s GridWeek conference in Washington D.C.

The report is now up for public comment for 30 days. It is hoped the framework will eventually become a testing and certification process that all smart grid technologies deployed within America will be expected to meet.

Utilities and developers alike are certainly scrutinizing the report as their future will depend upon adhering to it. Transforming the country’s power grid is a mammoth effort – there are some 5.4 million miles of transmission lines that connect 22,000 electricity substations and approximately 130 million mostly conventional electric meters.

Much of the current power grid – including smart grid deployments – is built upon disparate technologies that were largely developed in-house. The government has insisted that standards must be adhered to in order to encourage an interoperable energy Internet that is able to accept new technologies as they are discovered in the future. Smart grid standards will also encourage competition and competitive pricing for consumers.

The first release of 16 preferred standards from the NIST came in May. These included standards that already enjoy widespread use in smart grid deployments around the world. Protocols developed by the HomePlug Powerline Alliance and the ZigBee Alliance were included.

By expanding that first release to 77 standards, the framework is now more robust. Still there are 70 or so areas of the smart grid that the NIST has still not addressed. Of these areas 14 are a priority that Locke says are needed before the others.

One 1 of the 14 “action plans” has been completed and it has to do with a standard for upgrading smart meters already in place. Locke said that the National Electrical Manufacturers Association did the work. The report said that another action plan – having to do with scheduling mechanisms for energy transactions - would be completed by 2010.

In 2010 work will begin on standards for energy usage data, pricing, and demand response signals. By the middle of next year standards for wireless communications, interconnections for electricity storage, and guidelines for IP deployments are expected.

Just how Internet Protocol will be included within the standards is a touchy issue. A draft of the stimulus package included language that would have required all smart grid deployments to be IP-based. Big smart grid players including Itron, Sensus, Landis+Gyr, and Aclara launched a protest that eventually removed the specific language.

Since that time networking giant Cisco has come out in favour of IP-based smart grid technology. There are many existing systems that are based on older or proprietary technologies that would require a lot of costly integration in order to comply with IP.

By the end of next year the NIST should have standards for plug-in and hybrid vehicles outlines plus smart meter data profiles and a model for distribution grid management, said the report.

Cybersecurity is an area that can’t be rushed. “This is an area where we must take the time to do it right, because security must be designed” within a smart grid deployment, said Locke, adding that “we cannot take forever.”

A “Cyber Security Coordination Task Group” has been created under the direction of the NIST. The 200-member group expects to publish an extensive report on cybersecurity very soon. Locke expects related work should be completed in the summer of 2010.

The task group’s report will also include suggestions for smart meter security requirements. Widely read news reports purporting the security risks of smart meters has forced cybersecurity into the spotlight.

HomePlug Powerline Alliance
5200 SW Macadam Avenue, Suite 470
Portland, Oregon 97239 USA
http://www.homeplug.org

ZigBee Alliance
http://www.zigbee.org

National Electrical Manufacturers Association
1300 North 17th Street
Suite 1752
Rosslyn, Virginia 22209
http://www.nema.org

Itron
2111 N Molter Road
Liberty Lake, Washington 99019
United States
http://www.itron.com

Sensus Metering Systems
8601 Six Forks Road – Suite 300
Raleigh, NC 27615
http://www.sensus.com

Landis+Gyr AG
Feldstrasse 1
CH-6301 Zug
http://www.landisgyr.com

Aclara Power-Line Systems
945 Hornet Drive
Hazelwood, MO 63042
http://www.aclaratech.com