NIST Smart Grid and CPS Newsletter

May 2016

• Transactive Energy Community Gathers in Portland, including NIST Transactive Energy 

Challenge Teams

• New Standard Provides Framework for Smart Grid Testing and Certification

• NIST Cyber-Physical Systems Public Working Group Releases “Framework for CyberPhysical Systems”

• Upcoming Meeting: Global Cities Team Challenge, June 13-14, 2016

• Upcoming Meeting: IoT-Enabled Smart City Framework, June 15-16, 2016

• Upcoming Meeting: IEEE/NIST Workshop on Timing Challenges in the Smart Grid, October 

26, 2016

• SGIP Update

Transactive Energy Community Gathers in Portland, 

including NIST Transactive Energy Challenge Teams

The mood was upbeat as the transactive energy (TE) community gathered last week for the third 

Transactive Energy Systems Conference and Workshop (Portland, Oregon, May 17-19, 

2016). With 150 attendees from around the world, the participants listened to keynote talks and 

plenary panels from TE leaders. They also engaged in a series of interactive workshop sessions, 

providing important feedback and guidance about the next steps needed to advance the field.

Opening keynote speaker Audrey Zibelman, chair of the New York State Public Service 

Commission, set the context with her insightful remarks laying out the commission’s ambitious 

initiative, “Reforming the Energy Vision (REV).” She described the significant transformation 

anticipated in the distribution system, stressing the important role that TE will play in its 

implementation. 

A plenary panel on the final day of the conference spotlighted the NIST Transactive Energy 

Modeling and Simulation Challenge for the Smart Grid (TE Challenge). TE Challenge team leaders 

described their progress to date, with six out of seven teams giving presentations. The critical role 

of modeling and simulation was a key theme throughout the conference.

David Holmberg, NIST, who is heading up the TE Challenge program, reported that the Challenge 

has now passed the midpoint of Phase 1. Formally launched at a Kickoff workshop in September 

2015, Phase 1 will conclude later this year with the TE Challenge Summit (Gaithersburg, Maryland, 

September 20-21, 2016). 

The work products from Phase 1—a series of white papers—will provide important components 

(e.g., scenarios, use cases, business case models, etc.) to be used in Phase 2. The second phase, 

to be launched in September 2016, will emphasize comparable TE modeling and simulations using 

reference grids and scenarios and the co-simulation platform developed in Phase I.

Please visit the TE Challenge Collaboration Site for information on each of the seven 

teams. Further details about the Challenge are also outlined in “Transactive Energy Getting 

Real? Progress with the TE Challenge,” a February 2016 webinar (presentation and recording).

For additional details about many of the presentations from the TES 2016 meeting, including those 

related to the TE Challenge, please visit the conference website. Conference organizers 

announced that the conference proceedings will be published later this year.

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New Standard Provides Framework for Smart Grid Testing 

and Certification

Earlier this month, the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) published a new 

standard, The Smart Grid Interoperability Process Reference Manual, ANSI/NEMA SG-IPRM 1-

2015 (IPRM). The standard codifies a publication, the Interoperability Process Reference Manual 

(IPRM), which was developed and refined over the past six years by the Smart Grid Testing and 

Certification Committee (SGTCC) of the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP). 

The SGTCC had been established as one of SGIP’s standing committees when NIST launched the 

organization in November 2009. The SGTCC has served as one of the important ways that NIST

has sought to carry out the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA), which assigned 

NIST the “primary responsibility to coordinate development of a framework that includes protocols 

and model standards for information management to achieve interoperability of Smart Grid devices 

and systems...” 

Cuong Nguyen—who serves as the lead for NIST’s Smart Grid Testing and Certification Project, 

vice chair of the SGTCC, and chair of the NEMA committee that drove the standard development 

process—said, “Since the establishment of the SGIP and its SGTCC in 2009, we’ve been strong 

proponents of the importance of testing and certification for smart grid interoperability. While 

standards do promote interoperability, they don’t guarantee interoperability. Testing programs are 

needed to ensure that products are both compliant with standards and interoperable. The IPRM 

embodies the SGTCC’s vision for the smart grid testing and certification ecosystem.” 

The IPRM standard defines a process by which industry stakeholders may procure, test, and assert 

interoperability between disparate vendors of smart grid products built to identified standards. For 

example, the IPRM process defines 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. 

A more detailed discussion about the new standard is planned next month during a June 23 webinar 

hosted by the SGIP. SGTCC members will discuss the motivation for the development of this 

framework, provide a high-level overview of the standard, and describe the standardization 

process. Please watch SGIP’s webinar webpage for registration information.

In addition, for a more personal discussion, please see Nguyen’s article, “A ‘Certified’ Stamp for the 

Smart Grid,” in NIST’s “Taking Measure” blog.

This new standard was a joint effort of NEMA’s Distribution Automation Technical Committee and 

SGIP’s Smart Grid Testing and Certification Committee. ANSI/NEMA SG-IPRM 1-2016 is available 

in hard copy or electronic download from the NEMA Standards Store at www.nema.org.

The SGTCC’s plans for 2016 include the development of a user’s guide for the standard. The 

user’s guide will include further guidance on how to establish an Interoperability Testing and 

Certification Authority (ITCA) as well as answers to frequently asked questions. The committee is 

seeking participants for a new working group to develop this user’s guide. If you are interested in 

participating, please contact Cuong Nguyen, Vice Chair of the SGTCC, at cuong.nguyen@nist.gov.

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NIST Cyber-Physical Systems Public Working Group 

Releases “Framework for Cyber-Physical Systems”

On May 26, the NIST Cyber-Physical Systems Public Working Group (CPS PWG) released its 

“Framework for Cyber-Physical Systems, Release 1.0.” The document—developed in partnership 

with industry, academic, and government experts—is intended to help manufacturers create new 

CPS that can work seamlessly with other such smart systems that bridge the physical and 

computational worlds. According to NIST’s David Wollman, the framework provides a CPS analysis 
methodology for understanding, designing, building, operating, and assuring CPS, including those 

with multi-domain applications. 

“Creating a complex device involves a lot of people with varying interests and concerns, from the 

designers to the engineers to the safety assurance testers,” says Ed Griffor, who co-chairs NIST’s 

Cyber-Physical Systems Public Working Group together with NIST’s David Wollman and Chris 

Greer. “What the framework provides is an organized treatment of concerns so the group can 

address and manage them all effectively. It will prompt them to think of concerns they may not be 

aware of, and support understanding and integration of different CPS.” 

While the field is still new, a common characteristic of CPS is the tight integration of physical and 

computing devices—such as movement sensors that inform your fitness bracelet how far you have 

walked, or the computer controlling the transmission and antilock brakes in your car. Whatever the 

purpose of a given CPS, the draft framework outlines the common attributes that its subparts share 

with other CPS devices and systems, and indicates what it must do to interact successfully with the 

broader CPS environment. 

The document reflects nearly two years’ effort by the public working group, and addresses public 

comments received after the publication of the draft “Framework for Cyber-Physical Systems, 

Release 0.7” in September 2015. For detailed information about the CPS PWG, along with the 

Framework document, please visit the collaboration site at https://pages.nist.gov/cpspwg/.

Some of the concepts outlined in the CPS Framework are also being considered in other 

communities. For example, “trustworthiness,”—a cluster of concerns covering security, privacy, 

safety, reliability, and resilience—is discussed in a recently released NIST document, “Systems 

Security Engineering: Considerations for a Multidisciplinary Approach in the Engineering of 

Trustworthy Secure Systems—NIST Special Publication 800-160.”

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Upcoming Meeting: Global Cities Team Challenge, June 13-

14, 2016

The Global Cities Team Challenge (GCTC) Expo, convened by NIST and US Ignite, will be held 

next month in Austin, Texas. The expo will bring together over 80 cities from around the world to 

showcase and exhibit their Action Cluster projects. Registration for the GCTC Expo is free and 

includes complimentary access to the exhibition floor of the two co-located events, the US Ignite 

Application Summit and the Smart City Innovation Summit. For additional information about the 

GCTC program, please visit http://www.nist.gov/cps/sagc.cfm and www.globalcityteams.org. 

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Upcoming Meeting: IoT-Enabled Smart City Framework, June 

15-16, 2016

The IES-City Framework project is off and running, and a mid-project workshop will be held in 

Austin, Texas, on June 15-16, 2016. The purpose of the workshop is to review the progress of the 

three working groups, who all expect to have work in progress to discuss. In the next phase of the 

project, the three working groups will collaborate to plan the final deliverable. Find additional 

information on the event at https://pages.nist.gov/smartcitiesarchitecture/events/. The registration 

link is available online.

The IES-City Framework project, launched in March 2016, will:

• compare and distill current architectural efforts for smart cities and the Internet of Things 

(IoT);

• identify pivotal points of interoperability (PPI) across the many existing and deployed 

architectures; and
• produce a consensus framework document of common architectural features.

This framework document will help cities employ interoperable and scalable smart city solutions that 

will meet the needs of their communities.

Participation in the working groups and framework activity is open to anyone. For additional details, 

see https://pages.nist.gov/smartcitiesarchitecture/.

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Upcoming Meeting: IEEE/NIST Workshop on Timing 

Challenges in the Smart Grid, October 26, 2016

NIST will host the IEEE/NIST Workshop on Timing Challenges in the Smart Grid (Gaithersburg, 

Maryland, October 26, 2016). The goals of the workshop are to clearly identify and analyze:

• the practical challenges that are currently being experienced in wide-area time 

synchronization in current measurement and control deployments; and

• timing-related barriers that prevent the power industry from realizing future measurement 

and control technologies.

Workshop organizers plan to initiate discussion on potential solutions and evaluate the need for 

standard and metrology enhancements. A NIST report summarizing the challenges of wide-area 

clock synchronization and potential solutions will be drafted.

The workshop steering committee has issued a call for abstracts on the following topics: 

• Stakeholder perspective of wide-area time synchronization needs and challenges

• Future applications requiring wide-area time synchronization and timing requirements for 

distributed measurement and control

• Research / practice in GPS receiver calibration and testing

• Research / practice in assembling techniques to enable fault tolerant wide-area time 

synchronization

• Research / practice in deploying and testing IEEE1588 (using Power Profile or wide-area 

deployment)

Please submit an abstract to tsg_steering@nist.gov by July 17, 2016.

For additional details about the workshop and its organizers, please visit the workshop webpage.

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SGIP Update

SGIP’s 2016 Annual Conference, which will be called the 2016 Grid Modernization Summit, will be 

held November 7-10, 2016, at the Capital Hilton in Washington, D.C. With a speaker program 

composed of utility, vendor, and industry senior executives, FERC, government, regulators, national 

labs, and consultants, the theme is “Accelerating Transformation.”

NIST staff members continue to participate actively in SGIP technical sessions and will be 

contributing to the conference.

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