Progress
The attention being directed to the smart grid continues to grow. The drivers for change, in particular, high fuel costs, our dependency on foreign energy sources, and environmental issues associated with fossil fuels, have heightened the interest of policymakers and businesses to look hard at the smart grid concepts as one the few choices that can help address energy sustainability. Suddenly, people are becoming aware of the importance of getting the automation resources of the smart grid to connect and talk to each other.
But how do we enable resources such as smart buildings, homes, and factories to work with distributed generation and participate in the operation of a digitally connected electric system? The U. S. Department of Energy formed the GridWise® Architecture Council (GWAC) to wrestle with this issue; their mission is to enable all elements of the electric system to interact. We call the successful integration of these automation systems "interoperability" (PDF 77KB) and the objective is to make it easy.
So what progress has been made thus far? The GWAC is composed of members from each of these communities and over its three years of existence it has engaged influential stakeholders to define fundamental principles for interoperation (PDF 77KB), and in April assembled 50 respected system integration technologists in the development of a conceptual framework (PDF 798KB) for addressing interoperability challenges. In addition, GWAC members have engaged policy and business decision-makers with a checklist (PDF 153KB) of considerations for improving interoperability within their businesses and across the economic environment.
The work accomplished thus far is foundational in that it is instrumental to introduce interpretability as THE enabler for the smart grid and to develop alignment on key interoperability concepts. The next step is to build community awareness about interoperability to take action to remove impediments and improve interoperation of the growing number of automation systems throughout the electric energy spectrum.
