LonMark - Connection - Solutions

LonMark International is dedicated to helping companies around the world with their commitments of reducing their carbon footprints and increasing their corporate stewardships of the environment we all share. LonMark International is approaching energy conservation through our technical Task Groups—comprised of technical experts from many leading companies around the globe—by creating the standards that define energy use from the stand-point of the supplier all the way down to the individual appliances using that energy.

LonMark international is engaged with many governmental and non-governmental groups (Members-Only Area) to create smart grids around the world; both for reliability and for integrating alternative energies and micro-generation systems. We believe that a smart grid not only provides supplier-side benefits (peak-demand shedding, two-way monitoring of demand, transmission-and-distribution information sharing) but also consumer-side benefits through the transparent-availability of one’s own energy-use information: being able to monitor and modify one’s energy use through understanding what devices use the most energy and when. Taken collectively and in aggregate, a consumer can compare their use to the use of others in their geographic area and even around the world.

How can I get involved with the NIST Smart Grid Project in the USA?

Background:

Through the United States’ Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is tasked with “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” — from generation to end use.

LONWORKS^® networking technologies have been proven in tens-of-millions of meters around the world; with some install-
ations as far back as the early 1990s,
right in the USA. Tens-of-millions of
devices have LONWORKS technologies
in them. The protocol is “shovel ready,”
as they say; and that’s a great thing, considering the accelerated timeframes
of the Smart Grid Roadmap: on the 24th of September, 2009, this quick-moving effort got written into an official first draft and the pace has quickened at a tremendous rate.

NIST held an open-to-the-community vote
on the 16th of November, 2009, to ratify a charter and purpose for a
Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP), of which LonMark International is a participating member.

Of great importance to the LONWORKS networking community, is the release of
the Smart Grid Roadmap

. This roadmap was released in draft form on September 24th, 2009, and then was further updated; resulting in the 1.0 version, released to PDF in its final form on January 19th, 2010:

Participation:
LonMark International, LonMark International members, and the general public can support LonWorks standards as being a part of the solution — and, moreover, ensuring that the Smart Grid is a national success — by simply participating in the teleconferences, the face-to-face events, and participating in the
NIST collaboration website.

NIST has created 18 Priority Action Plan (PAP) groups to help solve the following (of which, LonMark staff participates in those in bold text and welcome participation on those and others):

00 - Meter Upgradeability Standard
01 - Role of IP in the Smart Grid
02 - Wireless Communications for the Smart Grid
03 - Common Price Communication Model
04 - Common Scheduling Mechanism
05 - Standard Meter Data Profiles
06 - Common Semantic Model for Meter Data Tables
07 - Electric Storage Interconnection Guidelines
08 - CIM for Distribution Grid Management
09 - Standard Demand-Response (DR) Signals
10 - Standard Energy Usage Information
11 - Common Object Models for Electric Transportation
12 - IEC 61850 Objects/DNP3 Mapping
13 - Time Synchronization, IEC 61850 Objects / IEEE C37.118 Harmonization
14 - Transmission and Distribution Power Systems Model Mapping
15 - Harmonize Power Line Carrier Standards for Appliance Communications in the Home
16 - Wind Plant Communications

Where is Much of the Work Being Done?
Much of the ongoing efforts of NIST will be fine-tuned in the open forums provided by
the North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB). They are looking for involvement.

This page contains recent letters from NAESB:

Click on this screenshot to read the latest from NAESB.

Other work is being in various groups of NIST's PAPs via teleconferences. Still other work is being done in various groups like LonMark International.

Are you a LonMark Member?
Login and see what teleconferences and web-based meetings are happening.
Get the dial-in numbers and links.

The EIS Alliance

This new group has created Buildings-related Use Cases. The use cases are now available on their forum. Go to http://www.eisalliance.org/forums/forum.php and register there. After you are approved, you can download the ZIP archive and comment via the EIS Alliance website. As stated on their Forums: “The EIS Alliance Use Cases will be available for public review for two weeks, commencing on February 1 and finishing on February 15.” - DBunzel

What to do with this Information:
While LONWORKS standards could be used at the utility generation, transmission, and distribution stages, they play a much better part between-and-including the Energy/Curtailment Service Providers (ESPs/CSPs) and the end devices:

signaling of demand-response information down to the meter;
signaling from the meter to the end devices;
signaling directly from the ESPs/CSPs to the end devices.

But more consumers will continue to become producers as localized generation becomes more economically feasible and sound. There will be needs for local generator sets and automatic transfer switches in addition to the local utility meters. There will be a need for alternative energy-generation sources to be controlled, measured, and monitored locally.

With LONWORKS networking, we have most of those functions profiled today and we are creating more; like the Wind Turbine Generator, Demand-Response Load Actuator, and the Photovoltaic Converter functional profiles, now in development within LonMark International’s Member Forum under TG - Utility / Energy and the soon-to-be-drafted profiles for standardized demand-response. But there are other areas that are fairly new for us and still need to be addressed. We need ideas and participation to make them a reality.

What can I do?
You can read the Roadmap, find the good and the not-so-good, and report your findings to us. We’ll share your findings or help you to do it yourself. You should look for holes that can be filled with the use of LONWORKS technology — areas where the Smart Grid could benefit from LONWORKS standards.

The LONWORKS technology experts are here: in our community. It’s up to us to educate and help build awareness of the wheel we already invented over a decade ago.

Further, you can participate in the online meetings of the above PAP groups.

LonMark staff is working hard on your behalf but we cannot do it alone.
Please join in the effort to help NIST ensure that the Smart Grid is a success:

http://www.nist.gov/smartgrid/

Many Thanks,
Jeremy J. Roberts
Technical Director
LonMark International

p.s.
Here are the latest few postings to the NIST Collaboration site. These links will open into a new browser window (or a new tab) and subsequent clicking, on the other links, will reuse that same window or tab:

NIST Postings

	PAP12Objective1 Use Case Diagrams The attached diagrams were submitted by Rick Murphy and represent the topologies the group is interested in for discussing use cases. (last changed by GrantGilchrist)
	PAP10EnergyUsagetoEMS Requirements for Energy Usage Information and standards harmonization: EnergyUsageInformationRequirements NEW REGISTRATION REQUIRED for meetings starting February ... (last changed by WilliamCox)
	Pap10MeetingNotes PAP10 Breakout Slides 20091118.pdf: Complete slides as presented at Grid Interop (includes Dave M slides) PAP10.wav: PAP 10 meeting audio recording 11.18.09NEW REGISTRATION ... (last changed by WilliamCox)
	Pap10TaskTable NEW REGISTRATION REQUIRED for meetings starting February 1, 2010. Register for PAP10 webinars at https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/695051771 to get phone ... (last changed by WilliamCox)
	OSTPConsumerInterfaceSmartGrid Office of Science and Technology Policy Forum: Consumer Interface with the Smart Grid Blog Page Contents: Overview The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP ... (last changed by VishantShah)

LonWorks standards (the ISO/IEC 14908-series) are already at the threshold of tens-of-millions of homes and business around the globe inside intelligent utility meters and at street-lighting poles. Those standards are widely deployed within buildings for the control, monitoring, and management of heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC), lighting, security, elevators/lifts, asset tracking, and video-surveillance control. The standards are proven and truly open networking technologies, with tens-of-millions of devices spread about the planet.

For more information about how LonWorks networking technologies are providing energy information to suppliers and consumers — and for information about how you can become involved — contact one of our member companies or the staff of a LonMark Affiliate organization in your geographic area.

LonMark International: Energy Efficiency Through Intelligent Control.