A better grid needs better standards

The governing board of the public-private Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) has voted in favor of a new standard and a set of guidelines important for making the long-planned smart electricity grid a reality.

The documents address the need for wireless communications among grid-connected devices as well as the ability to upgrade household electricity meters as the smart grid evolves.

The SGIP identifies a meter upgradeability standard and wireless communications guidelines as critical for achieving an energy-efficient, modern power grid with seamlessly interoperable parts. The body is also focusing on 17 other standards development projects called “Priority Action Plans,” or PAPs.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) created the SGIP, a group of public and private organisations, to coordinate the development of consensus-based smart-grid standards. According to Erich Gunther, the SGIP’s administrator, the two new PAPs are important for ensuring real-time communication, which will be a hallmark of the new grid.

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