December 1, 2010

Concerns about a ZigBee

protocol aired in Chicago

The Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) and some standards development organizations (SDOs) finished joint initial work on three standards, and SGIP will now build a database that NIST, FERC, utilities and vendors can use to ensure smart devices and meters work together securely, the group's governing board said yesterday.  But one challenge still facing the year-old SGIP is to ensure smart meters connecting to HANs through early versions of the ZigBee communications protocol are not marginalized by that standard's subsequent progress.

          “What you all have done over the past year is nothing short of remarkable,” George Arnold, NIST's national coordinator for smart grid interoperability, told the 25 members of SGIP's governing board at an all-day meeting in Chicago.  The board met the day before the Grid-Interop conference is scheduled to open in the Windy City.

          About $13 trillion will be spent on modernizing power grids worldwide by 2030, Arnold said, and of that total, “hundreds of billions” will flow to smart grid projects.  “You are laying the groundwork for ensuring these investments are not just a hodge-podge of things that don't work together but really interoperate securely,” he said.

          SGIP was formed last December and chose its board members at last year's Grid-Interop, in Colorado.  Roughly half those board members are up for re-election or replacement at this year's intensely technical three-day conference.  About 500 people are expected -- the same number as last year, and over three times as many as attended the first Grid-Interop, in Albuquerque in 2007, said Anto Budiardjo, CEO of show organizer Clasma Events.

          While visiting Texas' PUC recently, Arnold learned that millions of smart meters there will be installed with a built-in, early version of ZigBee's protocol linking the meters to HANs, Arnold told the SGIP board.

          Version 2.0 of ZigBee's Smart Energy Profile is part of NIST's Framework & Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards, released 11 months ago (SGT, Jan-20).  But some aspects of the earlier versions are not -- a concern to Texas' regulators.

          “What is the future of these devices?” Arnold asked.  “The last thing we want is to create the perception that these meters have to be thrown away and that consumers who had been promised the benefits of access to energy-use information find that doesn't really happen.”

          Smart meters using early versions of the ZigBee protocol would be able to communicate with each other, but perhaps not always with meters using later versions -- making them stranded assets.

          And, Arnold added, the cyber security aspects of early ZigBee protocols have not been scrutinized.

Cerf voices concern

Board member Vint Cerf, considered a pioneer of the internet's technology, offered a “nightmare scenario” based on Arnold's concerns.

          “Imagine you are living in city X, with your appliances carefully tuned to the specific rate structure there and to the communications environment that lets the meters talk to them.  Then you move to city Y, and all the optimizations and configurations are no longer suited.

          Imagine having to bring in a SWAT team to reconfigure your hot water heater, your washer and dryer.  I hope we do better than that.”

          The board decided the SGIP's existing HAN task force should bear primary responsibility for addressing those concerns, with input from other SGIP contingents.

Global aspect tricky

Jee Sik Park, a member of the steering committee for the Korea Smart Grid Standardization Forum, laid out his nation's plans for coordinating smart grid standards.  Including international participants has been one of the SGIP's goals for at least six months (SGT, May-27).

          But Arnold yesterday pointed out the challenge of writing an agreement that could be used as a model for future global collaboration, noting that every nation's needs are different.  He said foreign participants in US standards-creation efforts are tending to fall into one of two groups.  China, the EU, Japan and Korea are “really drivers of standardization,” while “many other countries are interested in modernizing their grids and in standards but are not driving” standards.  About a dozen countries have visited the US to observe SGIP proceedings, he said.

          China's National Grid a month ago sought and received NIST's permission to translate some cyber security standards into Chinese, Arnold added.  India, too, has formed a smart grid committee, he said.

‘Inclusive' catalog coming

The SGIP is creating an online database, called a catalog, that includes standards its board has approved, Erich Gunther, administrator of the group, said.  The catalog “will be immediately useful” to utilities choosing equipment and software and to vendors making preliminary design decisions, in part because it provides new information, he said.  The catalog will be “far more inclusive and far less judgmental” than a compilation NIST or FERC would use, because those agencies must apply US government policy to standards they accept, he said.

          Gunther presented to the governing board the first three standards that priority action plans (PAPs) and SDOs recommend for inclusion in that catalog.  They recommended delaying one standard's acceptance.

          The first five interoperability standards for smart grid that NIST sent to FERC this year (SGT, Oct-22) did not go through the same approval process.  They were existing standards whereas the standards discussed in Chicago yesterday are new or are about to be finalized, Gunther said, noting that the five standards now in FERC's hands might eventually be added to the catalog.

          The standards urged for acceptance yesterday are:

• IETF IPS RFC, from PAP 01.  SGIP is currently broken into 17 PAPs.

          PAP 01 deals with how to use technologies similar to those underlying the internet -- IP, or internet protocols -- to link smart meters to each other and to devices.  The internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has been working with the SGIP in PAP 01.  RFC means “request for comment.”

          “This is a good outcome of PAP 01,” Gunther said.  “It's solid and really critical.” PAP 01 will officially disappear but will be replaced by a working group to address subsequent issues.

• SAE J1772.  This standard, dealt with by PAP 11, which covers EVs, comes from the Society of Automotive Engineers and governs the physical coupling of EVs to the grid in North America, using connectors handling up to 600 volts and 80 amps.

• SAE J2836/1.  Also assigned to PAP 11, this standard discusses high-level aspects of connections between EVs and the grid.  It could help consumers charge EVs during off-peak hours and help utilities better manage grid load.

          Urged for delayed acceptance was SAE J2847/1, assigned to PAP 11 and laying out detailed specifications for communication between EVs and the grid.  Though Gunther described it as “a cornerstone for interoperability,” PAP 11 recommended against immediately including it in the catalog because it does not adequately address privacy and cyber security, he said, noting that those shortcomings could be remedied in mere weeks.

          The board's vote on the recommendations will be finalized Dec 17, Gunther said.