The Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) Plenary Committee voted to add three new standards to the SGIP Catalog of Standards. According to the NIST website, “the Catalog is a compendium of standards and practices considered to be relevant for the development and deployment of a robust and interoperable Smart Grid.” NIST and the SGIP no longer recommend standards for adoption by regulators like Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).  Instead, the agency has created the Catalog of Standards that allows regulators to review common standards when creating regulations and best practices.  Standards added to the catalog recently are IEEE C37.238, WS-Calendar Common Schedule Communication Mechanism and SAE 2847-1 Communication between Plug-in Vehicles and the Utility Grid.

IEEE C37.238:  IEEE Standard Profile for Use of IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol in Power System Applications. This standard specifies a common profile for use of IEEE 1588-2008 Precision Time Protocol (PTP) in power system protection, control, automation and data communication applications utilizing an Ethernet communications architecture. Common time synchronization is the key to many Smart Grid applications for real-time operation necessary to make the Smart Grid highly robust and resilient to disturbances (“self-healing”), either from natural events such as earthquakes or large variations in wind or solar power availability, or from potential terrorist actions. Guidelines on how to achieve that synchronization and addressing different issues related to that synchronization are required. A standard (IEEE 1588) is available to achieve highly accurate synchronization over a communication network however an implementation profile for power system applications is required. The timing issue has been in the news recently with respect to the terrestrial system proposed by Light Squared. The Light Squared system is being tested for harmful interference into the national GPS systems. Utility networks that rely solely on GPS for timing are concerned that Light Squared will significantly impact their network.

WS-Calendar Common Schedule Communication Mechanism for Energy Transactions: The anticipated use of WS-Calendar is as a component within other specifications, providing a common model for schedule to diverse interactions in different domains. WS-Calendar adapts the existing specifications for calendaring to passing schedule and event information between and within services. The smart grid relies on coordinating processes in homes, offices, and industry with projected and actual power availability at different times. Emergency management coordinators wish to inform geographic regions of future events, such as a projected tornado touchdown, using EDXL. Building systems and industrial processes are already operated using service interactions in a number of open and proprietary specifications. These efforts will benefit from a common standard for exchanging schedule and interval.

SAE 2847-1: Communication between Plug-in Vehicles and the Utility Grid, establishes requirements and specifications for communication between plug-in electric vehicles and the electric power grid, for energy transfer and other applications. Where relevant, this document notes, but does formally specify, interactions between the vehicle and vehicle operator.