Disable your ad blocker to enjoy the full interactive features of this document.
Explains
Setting standards – the key to smart grid development?
Zühlke has been working with DESNZ to advise the government on data standards with the aim of ensuring interoperability and unified understanding of data. One of the problems the energy sector faces is that different parts of the system use different and often incompatible frameworks. For example, the UK’s go-to standard for network data exchange is the composite Common Information Model (CIM) standard.
Steven Steer points out that while some stakeholders will use CIM, others who are more concerned with working at the grid-edge will use standards like OpenADR and IEC61850, which are technology standards for improving grid efficiency by allowing devices to automatically respond to price and availability signals, and still others will use international standards such as IEEE 2030, which is widely adopted in the US and so is used by many device manufacturers. All of these are intended to provide best practice for achieving smart grid interoperability, but they each do it differently. “The result is localised areas of interoperability but there’s nothing guiding the overall picture. This can foreclose competition by raising costly market barriers.”
A good starting point would be to get the data to be interoperable in practice – and then write the standards that allow it to be shared and used effectively. “The standards should develop in parallel but finish last. Get everyone communicating their data in practice and then write the standard, not the other way around.” Authoritative oversight is needed to put in place a robust information model for the energy sector, Steer says. “Standards can be done well, or they can be done very badly, but worst of all is nobody trying to bring them together. That has the potential to hamstring a lot of digitalisation, especially over the long term.”
Authoritative oversight would help “ensure a common language between all of these standards that work in their little islands, making sure they join up together”. But just having good standards will not be enough: it’s also essential to ensure they are implemented in a uniform manner. Steer explains: “The problem is often that there is no codified definition of implementation of the standard which can be tested and validated against, providing in-practice assurance that you genuinely conform.
“You may then try to get two devices to talk to each other and also talk to the grid – but as you do so, you discover each stakeholder (each device manufacturer and the grid operator) interpreted the standard differently. Without conformity testing and validation, there’s a big problem on the horizon. And that is something that can be undervalued.”
“Standards can be done well, or they can be done very badly, but worst of all is nobody trying to bring them together. That has the potential to hamstring a lot of digitalisation, especially over the long term.”
Steven Steer, principal data consultant, Zühlke
The development of overarching standards can be accelerated if compelling cross-industry use cases are focused on and incentives are aligned, Steer says. “The islanding that occurs with standards can be alleviated by a particular use case that is driven hard. This requires the kind of transparent and iterative working that is embodied by best practice digital delivery, but it must be applied at a sectoral scale using common best practice governance across organisations. This encourages harmonisation so that everyone is on the same page; it helps people to agree on a standard. Then you need a shared and continuous compliance testing process to make implementations of the standard work reliably.”
As well as powerful use cases, you need people able to identify emerging areas where standards will be required, he says, “trusted independent parties who can say, ‘while there is no formal standard around this yet, we recommend everyone in the industry starts following certain openly available specific practices, so we can, at the right time, turn it into a standard’. These kinds of behaviours can emerge from good-quality shared governance practices.
“It is key in infrastructure sectors that you have authoritative governance and leadership over how the system gets engineered. People are very good at saying what type of system they want built – but not great at explaining how to get there in a way that is realistic for everyone, and that’s what slows real progress.
“The ‘how’ gets wrapped up and disregarded in policy layers and discussion,” says Steer. This means you end with policies that sound agreeable but that aren’t backed up with detailed engineering. “You don’t actually have a cohesive engineering plan for delivery that supports the aspiration.
“It slows progress.”
