Smart Grid Blog

There is a lot of collaborative work going on the Smart Grid community to develop standards that will make different components of the grid interoperate. Like any other group, the SG community has some really active people, and then the rest of us. Those active people are already dialed in to what's going on within the core groups that are leading the charge towards better interoperability and cyber security, like NIST (National Institute for Standards and Technology), the SGIP (Smart Grid Interoperability Panel), the GWA (GridWise Alliance), and the GWAC (GridWise Architecture Council). And of course there are also NERC (North American Electric Reliability Corporation), FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory commission, and the DOE (Department of Energy).

I spend a fair bit of time on this, mainly in my role as a member of the GWA's Interoperability and Cyber Security Working Group (ICWG), but I still feel a little lost sometimes. Then again, I can be easily confused. But in the event that there are others out there who for various reasons can't keep up, it seemed like it might make sense to take a couple of posts and clarify the NIST process and result. If you're not in tune with what each of the above groups does, here's a lineup card:

• NIST - charged with developing the standards that will enable utilities, consumers, and "developing a comprehensive framework for a nationwide, interoperable Smart Grid ... " (www.nist.gov/smartgrid)
• SGIP - a membership-based group formed to give industry feedback and input to the NIST process (download of charter available at the NIST website cited above.)
• GWA - an industry group of utilities and vendors that promotes, educates, and advocates for smart grid innovation. (www.gridwise.org)
• GWAC - a group of utilities and vendors organized to define the guiding principles and architecture of the smart grid. (www.gridwiseac.org)
• NERC - the watchdog group with the responsibility to develop and authority to enforce industry reliability standards. (www.nerc.com)
• FERC - the regulatory body that governs interstate transmission of electricity, natural gas, and oil. (www.ferc.gov)
• DOE - is, well - the DOE. (www.en.gov)

NIST, through collaboration with these groups, under direction from some key contract consultants, put together an important document to help guide the development of the smart grid. Called the Smart Grid Roadmap, this document provides a wealth of information not only about how NIST intends to guide the industry through standards development towards a smart grid, but also gives implementation guidelines for utilities and others. The official document title is "NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards" (Special Publication 1108). You can download it at no cost from the NIST site listed above. Which your humble author strongly urges you to do, if you have any interest in the smart grid. And if you don't, why are you reading this blog, anyway?

With that somewhat lengthy introduction, let's get on to the Roadmap itself. The document was first produced in draft form back in October 2009, called a NIST Interim Report or NISTIR. Hence the clever title of this post - Mr. NISTIR. It's a lot harder to find something that rhymes with Roadmap. The draft was reviewed and commented on by various groups, individual utilities and vendors, and published in final form in January of this year.

The Roadmap is organized into 7 chapters, plus and Executive Summary and Appendices. Here they are in overview:

• Executive Summary
• Chapt 1 - Purpose and Scope
• Chapt 2 - Smart Grid Vision
• Chapt 3 - Conceptual Reference Model
• Chapt 4 - Standards Identified for Implementation
• Chapt 5 - Priority Action Plans
• Chapt 6 - Cyber Security Strategy
• Chapt 7 - Next Steps
• List of Acronyms
• Appendix: Specific Domain Diagrams

Over the next few weeks, we are going to dig into the Roadmap a bit, focusing on the things that your humble author (YHA) thinks might be of most interest to you, the interested smart grid observer (ISGO). Which in no way should be considered to substitute for you, the ISGO, downloading the Roadmap and perusing it at length. But I hope to help give you some ideas on where to look first and hardest. Please join me.