Modernization of the nation’s electric grid is a vital component of the President’s comprehensive plans to build a clean energy economy. The Smart Grid will enable an array of new applications and benefits, from increasing use of renewable energy sources to averting construction of back-up (peak) power plants to enabling consumers to manage their energy use and electricity bills.
Timely information on price and even source of energy—wind, coal, or natural gas, for example—combined with responsive control capabilities will open the way to new patterns in purchasing and consuming electricity that will help to balance supply and demand and ensure reliability.
The Executive Branch wants to ensure that the consumer interface to the Smart Grid enables households to optimize their energy use. Ideally, the consumer interface will be practical and straightforward, encourage widespread adoption of Smart Grid applications, and promote U.S. innovation in clean energy technologies. This blog was created to provide a forum to hear your views on issues related to the architecture and standards for the consumer interface with the Smart Grid as well as policies concerning consumer access to and ownership of Smart Grid data. Your views will help inform government policies, the work of the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel, and the actions and decisions of many others in the diverse Smart Grid community.
Today, in most households, customer access to information about energy usage is limited to data provided on a monthly utility bill. The Smart Grid will provide consumers with near-real time information allowing them to manage when and how they use energy. Smart appliances will be able to adjust their operation based on time-of-day or dynamic electricity pricing and utility demand response signals. The NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards describes a flexible standards-based architecture to support these capabilities. Interoperability standards enable different suppliers’ smart meters, smart appliances, home energy management systems and other devices and systems to communicate and cooperate.
There is concern, however, that the large number of competing standards in the home-to-Smart Grid interface will impede or even undermine progress toward realizing the significant benefits that the Smart Grid can deliver to consumers. Also requiring attention are questions concerning the ownership and privacy of energy-consumption data; the pathways and gateways for routing and exchanging price, usage, and other energy-related information among consumers, utilities, and third-party service providers; and the standard data communication interfaces that manufacturers need to cost-effectively produce smart devices, appliances, and systems for homes. Some of these issues also are summarized in the Federal Register notice, published on Feb. 19, 2009,to announce this blog.
During the next three weeks, we would like to hear your views on a number of questions about architecture, data access and ownership, and standards related to the customer interface to the Smart Grid. Between February 23-March 1, we would like to focus on architectural questions. New topics with corresponding will be introduced on March 2 and March 8, as described in the introduction to this forum. Please do not feel limited by these questions. We welcome comments about the consumer-to-Smart Grid interface that may go beyond the scope of our questions.
To begin the discussion, what are your views on the following architectural questions:
Information on how to participate in this discussion can be found in the introduction to the blog. We look forward to hearing from you.
There is concern, however, that the large number of competing standards in the home-to-Smart Grid interface will impede or even undermine progress toward realizing the significant benefits that the Smart Grid can deliver to consumers. Also requiring attention are questions concerning the ownership and privacy of energy-consumption data; the pathways and gateways for routing and exchanging price, usage, and other energy-related information among consumers, utilities, and third-party service providers; and the standard data communication interfaces that manufacturers need to cost-effectively produce smart devices, appliances, and systems for homes. Some of these issues also are summarized in the Federal Register notice, published on Feb. 19, 2009,to announce this blog.
During the next three weeks, we would like to hear your views on a number of questions about architecture, data access and ownership, and standards related to the customer interface to the Smart Grid. Between February 23-March 1, we would like to focus on architectural questions. New topics with corresponding will be introduced on March 2 and March 8, as described in the introduction to this forum. Please do not feel limited by these questions. We welcome comments about the consumer-to-Smart Grid interface that may go beyond the scope of our questions.
To begin the discussion, what are your views on the following architectural questions:
- Should the smart meter serve as the primary gateway for residential energy usage data, price data, and demand response signals? What are the factors indicating this, and how will they change over time?
- Should a separate gateway (Energy Services Interface) be the primary gateway for all or a subset of this data?
- What alternative architectures involving real-time (or near-real-time) electricity usage and price data are there that could support open innovation in home energy services?
Information on how to participate in this discussion can be found in the introduction to the blog. We look forward to hearing from you.
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