Smart Grid Blog

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, has launched a public forum to solicit comments on the nation’s evolving smart electric power grid — specifically the size, shape and requirements of a consumer interface with the smart grid.

According to the OSTP, the Executive Branch wants to know options: all the possibilities available to consumers interfacing with a smart grid that can provide enough information for choice, control and optimization of energy use.

via Smart grid customer interface feedback requested by NIST – Utility Automation/Electric Light & Power.

Smart meters have been undergoing a bit of a consumer backlash lately — and that could open the door for alternative ways to bring energy data to homeowners. Certainly the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the federal entity setting smart grid standards, seems to want to look for ways outside the smart meter to bring consumers and the smart grid closer together.

NIST is launching a new blog to open an industry dialogue around the “customer interface to the Smart Grid.”

via Count the Ways to Connect Consumers to the Smart Grid | Tech News From All Over The Net.

In Washington, where big brains often confront such matters, it’s understood that a smart grid rollout could overwhelm current safeguards for privacy and data security. News that the government is working on it may calm some fears — or might not, depending on one’s faith in federal initiatives.

via Feds Moving Forward on Smart Grid Security and Privacy : Greentech Media.

The Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) issued today the second draft of its Smart Grid Cyber Security Strategy and Requirements, which now identifies more than 120 interfaces that will link diverse devices, systems and organizations engaged in two-way flows of electricity and information and classifies these connections according to the level of damage that could result from a security breach.

Prepared by the NIST-led Cyber Security Working Group, which has more than 350 members, the new draft report expands upon an earlier preliminary version, which was released by Commerce Secretary Gary Locke last September and underwent 60 days of public review. It incorporates responses to the more than 350 individual comments received.

via NIST Issues Expanded Draft of Smart Grid Cyber Security Strategy For Public Review and Comment.

It can be done.

That’s the word from John McDonald, the general manager of the transmission and distribution business at General Electric and the newly appointed chair of the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel Governing Board at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Last September, NIST announced plans to establish 77 smart grid standards over the next few years and finalize 14 priority standards in 2010 alone.

via A Chat with the Man Who Will Keep Smart Grid on Track : Greentech Media.

As “SNL”’s Seth and Amy used to say: Really?! That was my reaction when I first read the findings from a report issued by NanoMarkets this morning; it claims that U.S. government’s policies and regulations are slowing down the smart grid market. Specifically the report says that the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) efforts to set standards for the smart grid is acting as a drag on the market.

via Report: Government Smart Grid Standards Process Slowing Down the Market.

It’s been a while since I’ve written much of anything smart grid related that didn’t directly deal with the successful Smart Grid Summit held in conjunction with TMC’s (News – Alert) ITEXPO East last week in Miami.

But, when I came across news that Nanomarkets reported that the stall behind the continual evolution of the smart grids market is in fact the U.S. government and its policies and regulations, I wanted to briefly discuss its effect on the space.

via Smart Grid.

NIST has published release 1.0 of the smart grid interoperability standards. Most notably, this is the first attempt to address cyber security in smart grid deployments. This release points to various standards that can be used for implementing interoperability and security controls, and it’s fair to say that it plants the seeds for what should become comprehensive, control-driven guidelines for implementing various aspects of smart grid.

via Cyber security sees the light of day – Community – ComputerworldUK.

An important piece of President Obama’s energy plan is moving forward with the announcement from the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) of an initial list of standards, a preliminary cyber security strategy, and other parts of a framework to support transforming America’s aging electric power system into an interoperable “Smart Grid.”

via NIST Publishes Outline for Advanced “Smart Grid” | Executive Gov.

If you divide how important some energy technology is to the future of mainstreamers by how much they know about it–call it the Invisibility Index–you’d be hard-pressed to come up with something that scores higher than changes to the electricity grid. Luckily, there are plenty of people thinking and talking about it, and even better, laying the groundwork for the US to change from what it is (picture Fred Sanford’s living room festooned with high-voltage cables) to what we need it to be (picture most of the tech in The Jetsons).

via Infonugget: Smart grid framework.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology on Wednesday released additional details on requirements for developing the smart electric grid.

The NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards, Release 1.0 addresses more than 400 public comments in response to a draft document published in September 2009. The draft proposed standards for the security and technical capabilities of the smart grid.

via NIST releases update to smart grid standards – Nextgov.

The Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) issued today an initial list of standards, a preliminary cyber security strategy, and other elements of a framework to support transforming the nation’s aging electric power system into an interoperable Smart Grid, a key component of the Obama administration’s energy plan and its strategy for American innovation.

via NIST Issues First Release of Framework for Smart Grid Interoperability.

The Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced today that John D. McDonald, general manager of marketing for GE Energy’s transmission and distribution business and an IEEE Fellow, will serve as chair of the governing board of the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel, the organization launched by NIST in November to sustain and coordinate development of interoperability standards for a modernized electric power grid.

via Governing Board of Smart Grid Standards Panel Announces Officers.

Efacec Advanced Control Systems — which for more than 32 years has conducted the industry’s most enduring user group meeting for utility executives and engineers –- applauds next week’s landmark “Conference on Innovative Smart Grid Technologies (ISGT).”

The workshop, the first sponsored by the IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES) and hosted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), will be held January 19-21, 2010 in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

via Efacec Advanced Control Systems Endorses IEEE & NIST Smart Grid Workshop — ATLANTA, Jan. 13 /PRNewswire/ –.

Parks Associates announced today that George Arnold, National Coordinator for Smart Grid Interoperability, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), U.S. Department of Commerce, will deliver the afternoon keynote “NIST Smart Grid Interoperability Standards and the Home Area Network” at Smart Energy Summit.

via George Arnold, National Coordinator for Smart Grid Interoperability at NIST, to Keynote Parks Associates’ Smart Energy Summit | SYS-CON CANADA.