George Arnold, National Coordinator for Smart Grid Interoperability, NIST

Denver, CO, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- November 20, 2009 - The Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP), which will support the ongoing development of smart grid standards in the United States, has been established and its governing board elected.

Established by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) with the assistance of EnerNex under a contract enabled by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the new consensus driven stakeholder organization is intended to provide an open process for businesses and other stakeholder groups to participate in coordinating and accelerating the development of standards for the evolving smart grid.

Starting with an initial membership of more than of 370 organizations spread among 22 stakeholder categories, the SGIP has three primary functions: to provide technical guidance to facilitate development of standards for a secure, interoperable smart grid; to specify testing and certification requirements necessary to assess interoperability smart grid-related equipment, software, and services; and to oversee the performance of activities intended to expedite the development of interoperability and cyber security specifications by standards development organizations.

Each of the stakeholder categories is represented on the board with an elected representative and in addition three at-large members are elected by the full membership.

The elected board members are:

1. Appliance and consumer electronics providers: Brian Markwalter (Consumer Electronics Association)
2. Commercial and industrial equipment manufacturers and automation vendors: Tariq Samad (Honeywell)
3. Consumers – residential, commercial, and industrial: Todd Rytting (Panasonic Electric Works Laboratory of America)
4. Electric transportation industry: (open)
5. Electric utility companies – investor-owned and publicly owned utilities: George Bjelovuk (American Electric Power)
6. Electric utility companies – municipal: (open)
7. Electric utility companies – Rural Electric Association (REA): Bob Saint (National Rural Electric Cooperative Association)
8. Electricity and financial market traders (includes aggregators): (open)
9. Independent power producers: Kenneth Van Meter (Lockheed Martin’s Energy Solutions)
10. Information and communication technologies (ICT) infrastructure and service providers: Matthew Theall (Intel Corporation)
11. Information technology (IT) application developers and integrators: Vint Cerf (Google, Inc.)
12. Power equipment manufacturers and vendors: Le Tang (ABB Inc.)
13. Professional societies, users groups, trade associations and industry consortia: Wayne Longcore (Consumers Energy)
14. R&D organizations and academia: Mladen Kezunovic (Texas A&M University)
15. Relevant federal government agencies: Perry Pederson (Nuclear Regulatory Commission)
16. Renewable power producers: John Nunneley (SunSpec Alliance)
17. Retail service providers: Brent Hodges (Reliant Energy)
18. Standards and specification development organizations: TIE John Caskey (National Electrical Manufacturers Association) and Katherine Voss (ODVA, Inc.)
19. State and local regulators: Paul Centolella (Public Utility Commission of Ohio)
20. Testing and certification vendors: Rik Drummond (Drummond Group Inc.)
21. Transmission operators and independent system operators: Jamshid Afnan (ISO New England, Inc.)
22. Venture capital: (open)
23. At-large: Paul De Martini (Southern California Edison), Mark McGranaghan (Electric Power Research Institute), John McDonald (GE Energy)

In addition the yet to be named chairpersons of two standing committees – Smart Grid Architecture and Testing and Certification – will join the governing body.

George Arnold, NIST’s national coordinator for smart grid interoperability, will participate as a non-voting ex-officio member.

Arnold said the panel will ensure that the perspectives of the many diverse constituencies are represented in decision-making on standards needed to achieve the smart grid vision.

“The election of the panel marks the start of a new phase in the program,” said Arnold speaking after the announcement of the board members, and adding that he was looking forward to the next phase.

The first meeting of the board, which was established at Grid-Interop 2009, will take place next month.