NIST Smart Grid and Cyber-Physical Systems

NIST Smart Grid and Cyber-Physical Systems Newsletter 

August 2015 

Transactive Energy Challenge: Webinar (Aug. 6, 2015) and Kickoff Event (Sept. 10-11, 2015) 

Global City Teams Challenge (GCTC): Gearing Up for GCTC 2016 

Green Button Update 

Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) Update 

Comings and Goings: Staff Changes at NIST 

Transactive Energy Challenge: Webinar (Aug. 6, 2015) and 

Kickoff Event (Sept. 10-11, 2015) 

The smart grid community will have two opportunities in the next five weeks to learn about the 

upcoming NIST Transactive Energy Modeling and Simulation Challenge (TE Challenge). See below 

for details about registering for the one-hour webinar on Aug. 6, 2015, and the kickoff event at NISTGaithersburg on Sept. 10-11, 2015. 

The TE Challenge will bring researchers and companies with simulation tools together with utilities, 

product developers, and other grid stakeholders to create and demonstrate modeling and simulation 

platforms while applying transactive energy approaches to real grid problems. “Transactive energy,” as 

defined by the Department of Energy GridWise Architecture Council’s Transactive Energy Framework, 

refers to “a system of economic and control mechanisms that allows the dynamic balance of supply 

and demand across the entire electrical infrastructure using value as a key operational parameter.” 

Initiated by NIST and developed in collaboration with federal partners and industry, the TE Challenge 

will help the industry better understand the potential for TE and create a path for real-world trial 

implementations. The TE Challenge website and the soon-to-be-available TE Challenge collaboration 

site (watch for link on TE Challenge website) provide information about the challenge timeline, goals, 

and potential participants. 

On Thursday, Aug. 6, 2015, from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. EDT, the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) 

will host a webinar providing an overview of the TE Challenge. The webinar, presented by TE leaders 

from NIST and SGIP, will also present draft plans of some organizations planning to participate, as 

well as information about how you can get involved and benefit from the Challenge. Visit 

http://www.sgip.org/webinars to register. 

On Sept. 10-11, 2015, NIST will be hosting a kickoff event in Gaithersburg, Maryland. To view the 

preliminary agenda and register for the event, please visit the conference website. 

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Global City Teams Challenge (GCTC): Gearing Up for GCTC 

2016 

Building on the momentum of the highly successful NIST Global Cities Teams Challenge (GCTC) 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2015 program, smart city leaders are already looking ahead to next year. Sokwoo Rhee, Associate 

Director of the NIST’s Cyber-Physical Systems Program, said, “We are committed to building on the 

success of the GCTC and aim to convene a larger, even more global initiative that will support 

partnerships between local governments and innovators and advance IoT deployments in cities across 

the globe.” Later this year, NIST and US Ignite will release plans for GCTC 2016 and will announce 

the date of a kickoff meeting. 

The GCTC program will have a presence at next month’s Smart Cities Week 2015 event in 

Washington, DC (Sept. 15-17, 2015). Sponsored by the Smart Cities Council, the event will include 

two GCTC-moderated sessions (Tuesday, Sept. 15, from 5:10 to 6:10 p.m. and Wednesday, Sept. 16, 

from 9:30 to 10:10 a.m.) reviewing past successes and future plans of the GCTC program. 

Earlier this summer, the GCTC Expo (June 1, 2015, Washington, DC)—featuring more than 60 GCTC 

teams and 1300 attendees—brought the GCTC 2015 program to a festive conclusion. Archived video 

footage of all 60+ presentations and keynotes delivered at the Expo and copies of the presentation 

materials are now available online. (The June 2015 issue of this newsletter also includes further 

highlights of the event). 

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Green Button Update 

The Green Button Initiative continues to grow—and to attract attention at the highest levels of the 

federal government. A recent article on the White House Blog, “Green Button Initiative Makes 

Headway with Electric Industry and Consumers,” reports that more than 150 utilities and service 

providers have committed to providing more than 60 million U.S. households (including altogether 100 

million people). The article also highlights the role played by NIST and the Smart Grid Interoperability 

Panel (SGIP) in the development of energy usage data standards and in the creation of “a rich 

ecosystem of interoperable solutions that enable consumer access to electricity usage data.” 

NIST’s Dave Wollman, Deputy Director for Smart Grid and Cyber-Physical Systems Program Office, 

co-authored the blog article with DOE’S Kristen Honey and OSTP’s Dipayan Ghosh. 

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Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) Update 

SGIP hosted a public webinar on June 18, 2015, on “C2M2 and the NIST Cyber Framework: Applying 

DOE's NIST Cyber Security Framework Guidance.” (C2M2 is the Department of Energy’s 

Cybersecurity Capability Maturity Model.) NIST’s Victoria Pillitteri was one of the webinar presenters. 

Archived copies of the webinar recording and presentation are now available online; visit the SGIP 

webinar page. 

SGIP will host a webinar providing an overview of the Transactive Energy Challenge (see details in 

first article, above). 

The SGIP Annual Conference, Nov. 3-5, 2015, New Orleans, Louisiana, will feature a theme of 

“Advancing through Collaboration.” The speaker program will feature utility, vendor, and industry 

senior executives. Registration information and the conference agenda are now available on the SGIP 

Annual Conference page. 

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Comings and Goings: Staff Changes at NIST 

Edward Griffor has joined the NIST team as Associate Director, Smart Grid and Cyber-Physical 

Systems Program Office. With 35 years of international experience, Ed’s most recent position was as 

Walter P. Chrysler Technical Fellow and Chair of the FCA Technical Council for Fiat Chrysler 

Automobiles (FCA). 

Dean Prochaska, a key member of NIST’s smart grid leadership team, has accepted a new position 

with FirstNet, where he will serve as Director of Standards. FirstNet, an independent authority within 

the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, 

has the mission to build, operate, and maintain the first high-speed, nationwide wireless broadband 

network dedicated to public safety. 

Victoria Pillitteri, leader of NIST’s smart grid cybersecurity effort since 2013, has accepted an internal 

detail position in NIST’s Program Coordination Office in the Office of NIST Director Willie May. With 

Vicky’s transition under way, Suzanne Lightman has now joined the NIST smart grid team to play a 

lead role in smart grid cybersecurity. Suzanne has been a Senior Information Security Advisor at 

NIST since 2010. 

Kahlil Anderson, a student at University of Maryland, Baltimore Campus, has been a participant this 

summer in NIST’S Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program under the guidance 

of mentor Marty Burns. For his project, Kahlil built an application to enable data to be accessed from a 

commercial sensor database system used on the NIST campus by means of a Green Button server. 

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