The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) identified an initial set of five standards that it sent for consideration by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Technical Conference (FERC) for adoption as part of its Smart Grid Interoperability Roadmap. However, panelists at the FERC Technical Conference held today reported unanimously that the standards are not ready for adoption by the Commission.

One of the main issues identified during the meeting was the fact that many panelists said it was unclear what ‘adoption’ of the standards meant. For example, they were unsure if the standards, if adopted, would be made mandatory; and if so, would they be implemented right away. Dr. George Arnold, NIST’s National Coordinator for Smart Grid Interoperability, put a call out to utilities to guide FERC by providing input on how they intend to use the standards, and to throw light on which standards they are using as they deploy the smart grid across their territories.

The panelists were utility and vendor industry representatives who had been involved with the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP), the main group assisting NIST on this standards making process. In addition to the ambiguity surrounding the term ‘adoption’, many panelists also felt that the process was not as inclusive and accessible as it could have been. They urged the use of web-technology to ensure that those interested in engaging in the process were not turned away. It was also recommended that the groups involved in the process be expanded to include more professionals involved in reliability and security operations. Another concern that came up was that of the lack of security testing that the five families of NIST standards had been through, and panelists suggested stricter, specific evaluations. At the same time, they warned that the process could risk over-standardization by being too focused on the details as opposed to larger picture. As Wayne Longcore (Director of Enterprise Architecture and Standards, Consumers Energy) remarked, the standards process should be encouraging innovation and not stamping it out, because that is also the point of interoperability.

Suggesting a new framework for the standards making process, Frances Cleveland (President and Principal Consultant, Xanthus Consulting) shared a process that would have different levels of adoption, as opposed to the creation of a “binary standard”. On a scale of 0-5, this method would encourage vendors to implement and test them, and hence create an environment for eventual stakeholder acceptance as they move through the categories. The panelists urged FERC to consider providing more guidance to the industry by showing them a roadmap of an evolutionary standards process, instead of serving the role of a regulator and enforcer of the standards.

One of the panelists, Andy Bochman (Energy Security Lead, IBM), joked “there was consensus that there was no sufficient consensus”. Further, the groups seemed to also agree that these standards should be finalized with urgency. However, when it came down to what that ideal process would look like and how long might it take, there was no one answer. Overall, the conference was a reflection of what they felt were the shortcomings of the process, and how they thought it could be improved to best serve the needs of the industry and the consumers. Dr. Arnold said that the panel’s impression of the ‘lack of sufficient consensus’ was clearly an indicator of the fact that the industry does not want to be regulated, and that the standards making process will be best done outside of a regulatory framework.

FERC has invited public comment on this Smart Grid Interoperability Standards rulemaking with a deadline of March 2. They announced that they might issue a supplemental notice for comment on today’s technical conference. UTC will provide its members with more information and analysis of these developments as they are made available.