The Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) announced it has broadened its liaison with the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) to focus on technologies and testbeds to advance and promote adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) in the energy sector.
According to a joint statement by the two groups, “The agreement strengthens the existing Memorandum of Understanding through a cooperative relationship focused on aligning IoT architectures and testbed activities. The organizations have agreed to map the Industrial Internet Reference Architecture (IIRA) to the Energy IoT architecture. It also creates an opportunity for Industrial Internet Consortium members to engage in Energy IoT testbeds and SGIP members to participate in new Industrial Internet Consortium testbeds.”
“In addition,” the statement said, “the Industrial Internet Consortium and SGIP have agreed to formal review of key energy deliverables by both organizations. The two organizations will identify ways for members to participate in new and established testbed activities.
Meanwhile, Homeland Security Today reported this week, cybersecurity researchers from four universities and one utility company are working together as part of a Department of Energy (DoE)Center for Securing Electric Energy Delivery Systems (SEEDS) to help safeguard the nation’s power utilities from cyber attacks.
The $12.2 million DoE funded initiative is augmented by $3.1 million in matching funds from the research participants.
In June 2015, the Industrial Internet Consortium released its Industrial Internet Reference Architecture (IIRA) which provides a common approach for Industrial Internet systems and guides the design of the Consortium’s testbeds including the Control and Communication Testbed for Microgrid Applications.
The SGIP’s Energy IoT strategy and its current Open Field Message Bus (OpenFMB) project focuses solely on the energy industry, and its architecture was developed and is consistent with the IIRA.
“We believe that IIoT approaches are the future for the energy industry,” said SGIP’s CEO and President Sharon Allan. “They can unlock opportunities for distributed intelligence in fielded systems, predictive maintenance, transactive energy marketplaces and a variety of innovative solutions we haven’t even thought of yet. The IIC is the perfect partner to ensure the energy industry achieves IoT interoperability within our own industry and can realize even greater interoperability opportunities outside our industry.”
“This is an exciting opportunity to leverage the IIC’s architectures and philosophy into a key industry,” added Stan Schneider, CEO of Real-Time Innovations and a member of the Industrial Internet Consortium Steering Committee.
“The SGIP’s work on OpenFMB is its first Energy IoT solution, and we are excited to support that initiative and future IoT initiatives they are planning,” he said, adding, “We are especially excited to coordinate work within energy testbeds between the two organizations.”
The SGIP 2015 Annual Conference November 3-5 in New Orleans will showcase a multi-vendor microgrid demonstration using its OpenFMB framework. Speakers from the Industrial Internet Consortium and the SGIP’s OpenFMB project team will discuss the convergence of OT/IT and how the Smart Grid and IoT are uniting.
