Technologies For Smart Grid Systems

News Release: DoE Selects Northwest Team, QualityLogic and Drummond Group for $178M Smart Grid Demo

Smart Grids require a rich set of technologies, protocols, APIs and, at times, proprietary technologies. For Smart Grids to work, all of these components must interoperate. Interoperability is a central factor in making Smart Grids a working reality.

NIST has the charter for establishing interoperability standards. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) recently published the “Report to NIST on the Smart Grid Interoperability Standards Roadmap” that describes the current status, issues and priorities in this area.

Smart Grid implementations use a wide variety of communications, web and power distribution industry standards, including:

• AMI-SEC System Security Requirements - Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and Smart Grid end-to-end security
• ANSI C12.19/MC1219 - Revenue metering information model
• BACnet ANSI ASHRAE 135-2008/ISO 16484-5 - Building automation
• DNP3 - Substation and feeder device automation
• IEC 60870-6 / TASE.2 - Inter-control center communications
• IEC 61850 - Substation automation and protection
• IEC 61968/61970 - Application level energy management system interfaces
• IEC 62351 Parts 1-8 - Information security for power system control operations
• IEEE C37.118 - Phasor measurement unit (PMU) communications
• IEEE 1547 - Physical and electrical interconnections between utility and distributed generation (DG)
• IEEE 1686-2007 - Security for intelligent electronic devices (IEDs)
• NERC CIP 002-009 - Cyber security standards for the bulk power system
• NIST Special Publication (SP) 800-53, NIST SP 800-82 - Cyber security standards and guidelines for federal information systems, including those for the bulk power system
• Open Automated Demand Response (OpenADR) - Price responsive and direct load control
• OpenHAN - Home Area Network device communication, measurement and control
• ZigBee/HomePlug Smart Energy Profile - Home Area Network (HAN) Device Communications and Information Model

QualityLogic is following the evolution of these standards and determining which it will develop test suites for.

Smart Grid Interoperability Maturity Model

• Read the James Mater/Rik Drummond presentation to Grid Interop 2009:
  A Smart Grid Interoperability Maturity Model Rating System
• Request the Smart Grid Interoperability Maturity Model Proceedings of 2010 PES General Meeting (pdf)

Interoperability and Decision-Maker's Checklist

• Download Gridwise Architecture Council Introduction to Interoperability and Decision Maker’s Interoperability Checklist Version 1.0
• Request the Decision-Maker's Checklist - QualityLogic Proposed Additions (pdf)