NIST Smart Grid and Cyber-Physical Systems

Newsletter September 2015

• Transactive Energy Challenge: Kickoff Event (Sept. 10-11, 2015)

• “Facility Smart Grid Information Model” Reaches Key Milestone

• Seeking Participants in the ANSI/NEMA SG-IPRM Canvass Group

• Global City Teams Challenge (GCTC): Gearing Up for GCTC 2016, Save the Date

• "Identity and Access Management for Electric Utilities": Draft of NIST Cybersecurity

Practice Guide Now Available

• Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) Update

Transactive Energy Challenge: Kickoff Event (Sept. 10-11, 

2015)

On Sept. 10-11, 2015, NIST will be hosting a kickoff event for the NIST Transactive Energy 

Modeling and Simulation Challenge for the Smart Grid (TE Challenge) in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

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

Registration is encouraged by Thursday, September 3.

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 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 realworld trial implementations. The TE Challenge website and TE Challenge collaboration site provide 

information about the challenge timeline, goals, and potential participants. 

For a brief introduction to the Challenge, readers may want to check out the one-hour webinar held 

on August 6. The webinar, presented by TE leaders from NIST and the Smart Grid Interoperability 

Panel (SGIP), presented 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 see the archive. 

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Milestone

With the recent release for public comment of the Facility Smart Grid Information Model (FSGIM), 

homes, offices, factories, and other buildings are moving significantly closer to becoming full 

partners in supporting and managing the electric grid. The proposed FSGIM standard 

(ASHRAE/NEMA Standard 201P) defines an abstract, object-oriented information model that 

provides electrical energy consumers with a common basis to describe, manage, and communicate 

about electrical energy consumption and forecasts.

According to Steve Bushby, manager of the NIST Embedded Intelligence in Buildings Program and 

chair of Standard Project Committee (SPC) 201P that developed the standard, “the potential 

benefits of this standard—for both energy providers and facility owners—are very significant. 

Almost all electricity is consumed in a building of some kind. This standard attempts to capture the 

breadth and diversity of these consumers by using the term ‘facility.’” SPC 201P is sponsored by the 

American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and the 

National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA).

Among the many energy management applications enabled by this standard are potential gamechangers, such as on-site generation, demand response, electrical storage, and peak demand 

management. This standard builds on and integrates with other smart grid standards, including 

Green Button energy usage standards, BACnet, Smart Energy Profile (SEP) 2.0, IEC’s Common 

Information Model (CIM), and IEC 61850.

The standard development process, which often requires many years, was accelerated by the 

establishment of the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel’s (SGIP) PAP-17 in 2010 (co-chairs Steve 

Bushby, NIST, and Marty Burns, NIST). PAP-17 played an important role by developing use cases 

that served as the basis for deciding what needed to be included in the model. 

According to Mr. Bushby, “Many experts and organizations helped drive the standard development 

process forward. SPC 201P has had contributions from over 50 individual technical experts 

representing utilities, consumer interests, and manufacturers of products for residential, commercial, 

and industrial buildings. It’s been a labor of love for many of us.”

The resulting comprehensive document can be downloaded at the ASHRAE website. The 45-day 

public comment period ends on October 6, 2015. Instructions on how to comment are also 

provided online. The draft standard is also being considered for designation as an international 

standard (ISO/WD 17800).

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Seeking Participants in the ANSI/NEMA SG-IPRM Canvass 

Group

The Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) and the National Electrical Manufacturers Association 

(NEMA) are working together to convert the Interoperability Process Reference Manual (IPRM) into 

an ANSI/NEMA standard. This effort is seeking volunteers to participate in a canvassing committee 

for the purpose of developing an American National Standard. 

The IPRM is a foundational element of the vision of the SGIP Smart Grid Testing and Certification 

“Facility Smart Grid Information Model” Reaches Key
Committee (SGTCC). The SGTCC developed and issued the IPRM to detail the committee’s 

recommendations on testing and certification processes and best practices that enhance the 

introduction of interoperable products in the marketplace. These recommendations build upon 

international standards-based processes for interoperability testing and certification.

The IPRM defines a process by which stakeholders in the smart grid sector may procure, test, and 

assert interoperability between disparate vendors of smart grid products to identified standards. This 

standard will define requirements and recommendations for general test policies, test suite 

specifications, test profiles, interoperability testing and certification authority technical programs, 

governance, laboratory qualifications, and (process) improvements. Finally, this standard will 

describe an implementation approach.

The group is seeking participants in the following categories:

1. General Interest: Organization or individual that has an interest in the use of equipment

included in the scope of this standard (i.e., smart grid products), but doesn’t use it directly;

2. Producer: Manufacturer of equipment included in the scope of this standard;

3. Testing Laboratory: Organization that tests equipment included in the scope of this standard

to established specifications; and

4. User: Organization that uses equipment included in the scope of this standard. We

especially need additional participants in the User category.

If you are interested in participating, please contact the group’s Secretary, Khaled Masri, at 

khaled.masri@nema.org or the group’s Chair, Cuong Nguyen, at cuong.nguyen@nist.gov.

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

2016, Save the Date

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

2015 program, smart city leaders are already looking ahead to next year. An important meeting for 

the next round of GCTC effort will be held at the NIST campus in Gaithersburg, Maryland, 

November 12-13, 2015. Please save the date! (More information, including the agenda, will be 

available soon.)

Sokwoo Rhee, Associate Director of 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 

Internet of Things (IoT) deployments in cities across the globe.” 

The GCTC program will have a presence at the Smart Cities Week 2015 event in Washington, DC, 

(Sept. 15-17, 2015). Sponsored by the Smart Cities Council, the program will include four GCTCmoderated sessions:

• “Smart City Champions” (Tuesday, 9/15, 2:00 – 3:30 p.m.)

• “Global City Team Conversations“ (Tuesday, 9/15, 5:10 – 6:10 p.m.)

• “The Federal Role: U.S. Initiatives” (Wednesday, 9/16, 9:30 – 10:10 a.m.)

• “Accelerating Smart City Deployments” (special workshop event at Georgetown University,
640 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Thursday, 9/17, 1:00 – 5:30 p.m.)

Other sessions of special interest to the smart grid community include the following:

• “The Energy Grid: Foundation of Smart City 2.0”

• “Addressing Momentary Outages”

• “Microgrids, Smart Grids, and Energy Resilience”

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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"Identity and Access Management for Electric Utilities": Draft 

of NIST Cybersecurity Practice Guide Now Available

The National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE)—a public-private collaboration for 

accelerating the widespread adoption of integrated cybersecurity tools and technologies 

organization, established by NIST in 2012—has just released “Identity and Access Management for 

Electric Utilities, NIST Special Publication 1800-2” for public comment. 

The guide addresses one of the key cybersecurity challenges faced by utilities today—identity and 

access management (IdAM). Many utilities have decentralized IdAM systems, which are controlled 

by numerous departments. Among potential negative outcomes resulting from this situation are the 

following:

• an increased risk of attack and service disruption

• an inability to identify potential sources of a problem or attack

• a lack of overall traceability and accountability regarding who has access to both critical and

noncritical assets

Cybersecurity experts at the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) at NIST 

collaborated with the energy sector and technology vendors to develop an example solution to help 

energy companies better manage and control who has access to their networked resources, 

including buildings, equipment, information technology, and industrial control systems, using a 

centralized platform.

This newly available practice guide provides IT implementers and security engineers with a detailed 

architecture so that they can recreate the security characteristics of the example solution with the 

same or similar technologies. The solution is guided by NIST standards, best practices, and industry 

regulations, including the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s (NERC) Critical 

Infrastructure Protection (CIP).

NCCoE is seeking comments on the draft guide—the approach, the architecture, and possible 

alternatives. The comment period is open through October 23, 2015. Comments will be made public 

after review and can be submitted anonymously. Submit comments online or via email to 

energy_nccoe@nist.gov. 

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Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) Update 

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. Special early bird registration and lodging rates are available 

through September 18, 2015.

SGIP’s Catalog of Standards continues to expand, with six new entries approved by the SGIP

membership last month. This brings the number of entries to 76. One of the newly approved 

entries includes a NIST publication, NISTIR 7943 - Guideline for the Implementation of Coexistence 

for Low Frequency Narrowband Power Line Communication (NB-PLC) Standards in the Smart

Grid. This NISTIR, developed in conjunction with SGIP’s PAP-15 (Chair, David Su, NIST), presents

recommendations on the implementation of coexistence mechanisms for NB-PLC standards. The 

document also gives a short introduction of NB-PLC standards and their coexistence mechanisms.

(A companion publication also developed with PAP-15, NISTIR 7862 - Guideline for the 

Implementation of Coexistence for Broadband Power Line Communication Standards, was added to 

the Catalog of Standards in 2013.)

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