CA Rule 21: California’s Push for Managing Distributed Energy Resources (DER)
IEEE Standards Association Standards Insight published a paper I co-authored with Rudi Schubert, Director of New Initiatives at the IEEE Standards Association, about California’s leadership in establishing standards for the smart grid. Below is a summary. To read more, visit Standards Insight.
It was a significant step forward for grid modernization when the California Public Utility Commission (PUC) on 23 June 2016 issued an order identifying IEEE 2030.5™, IEEE Standard for Smart Energy Profile Application Protocol, as the default communications protocol for linking Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) with operations of the power grid.
IEEE 2030.5 defines a smart energy profile for managing energy resources, including DERs, in buildings. The standard defines an application protocol for management of the end-user energy environment, for applications such as demand response, load control, electric vehicles, DER and time-of-day pricing.
CA Rule 21 provides a regulatory driver and specific application use case for the utilities, vendors, aggregators and others to implement IEEE 2030.5 in their products. It also could deliver a terrific boost to DER proliferation and grid modernization at large.
Beyond California
Progress in DER integration is apparent in other regions, as well. South Korea, for example, is adopting IEEE 2030.5 as the standard for specific implementations of demand-response applications.
Instances of adoption of global smart grid standards, such as these in South Korea and California, help fuel grid modernization around the world.