Standards for the Australian smart grid

Governments around the world have set ambitious targets to cut greenhouse gases, reduce energy consumption and increase our reliance on renewable energy sources. At the same time, the electricity grid is facing new levels of demand as new electric applications become the norm and we source electricity from a range of new-generation technologies.

While even experts are unsure exactly what this low-carbon, energy-efficient landscape will resemble, increasingly policy makers are turning to smart grids - intelligent, integrated electricity networks - as the answer.

What is a smart grid?

There are many definitions for smart grid, but essentially the concept is to optimise the delivery of electricity. It is an electricity network that can integrate the needs and demands of all users, including generators and consumers, in order to deliver a more efficient, robust and consumer-friendly energy supply. It manages electricity supply and demand, improving the efficiency of the entire energy network. Comprising a combination of electrical, telecommunications and IT aspects, smart-grid technology enables interoperability and interaction across the electricity grid from the energy supplier right through to appliances.

In a house run on smart-grid technology, appliances and devices will interact with the electricity grid to both provide and consume energy, enhancing the energy efficiency of the power grid as a whole.

Where do standards fit in?

With so many different suppliers and users involved in the energy chain, the key to smart grid is interoperability - and the key to interoperability is standards.

Standardisation enables different systems, products and components to ‘talk’ to each other, ensuring compatibility and a level playing field.

But with smart grid in its infancy in many parts of the world, including Australia, the role of standards is largely still to be determined.

What is clear, however, is the need to adopt existing relevant standards where possible, and develop new standards much more rapidly than in the past. A lack of certainty or direction about which standards should be used or developed can lead industry to implement proprietary technology, which may become ‘de facto’ standards in potential detriment of future competition, innovation and optimised development of new technologies, systems and equipment.

Key areas for potential standards development include interoperability, transmission, distribution, metering, connecting consumers and cyber security.

What is being done locally and internationally?

In May 2010, Standards Australia formed an Australian Reference Group on Smart Grid to assist in providing Australian input to the International Electrotechnical Commission’s Strategy Group 3 on Smart Grid (IEC SG3).

Set up in 2009 by the IEC Standardisation Management Board (SMB), SG3 is tasked with providing advice on potential new international standards or technical committees in the area of smart-grid technology and assisting in the coordination of updating existing standards. In addition, the group has identified existing international standards and developed a roadmap for the development of a framework to achieve interoperability across smart-grid systems.

To date, Australian input to SG3 work has been limited with no Australian representative yet appointed. Recently, Standards Australia endorsed Mark Amos from Energy Networks Association as the nominated representative, with Keith Torpy from Landis & Gyr representing Smart Grid Australia endorsed as the alternative. Formal assessment and approval from the IEC SMB is expected soon.

In conjunction with the nominated Australian representative, Standards Australia’s Reference Group on Smart Grid is responsible for providing input and strategic direction to SG3 on behalf of Australian stakeholders. This is to ensure new areas of activities relating to standards will take into consideration Australian requirements where possible.

It is anticipated that the output from Standards Australia’s Reference Group on Smart Grid will be a valued source of information for Australian stakeholders that will enable them to plan their future work and investment around knowledge of world best practice.

The Reference Group is also expected to collaborate closely with the Commonwealth Government’s Smart Grid Initiative and Standards Working Group.

In addition to contributing to the work of SG3, the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN), European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation (CENELEC) and European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) are creating a Joint Working Group on smart grid. This Working Group is expected to outline a roadmap for European standardisation needs in the area of smart grid before the end of 2010.

The work of SG3 will focus on efforts to date by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the USA that are supported by the injection of US$10 million from the Obama administration as part of efforts to build smarter infrastructure, improve national security and stimulate employment. This funding is assisting NIST to coordinate development of a smart-grid framework that includes protocols and standards for information management to achieve interoperability of devices and systems.