The new Energy Interoperation Technical Committee will develop Web services-based information and communication models for exchanging dynamic pricing, reliability, and emergency signals. The group's work will also extend to information on energy market participation (such as bids), load predictability, and generation. Participants include representatives of IBM, Microsoft, Cisco, CPower, EnerNOC, Google, Grid Net, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, US National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST), TIBCO, and others.

"Dynamic pricing is key to addressing the growing needs for lower-carbon, lower-energy buildings, and net zero-energy systems," explained David Holmberg of NIST, co-chair of the OASIS Energy Interoperation Technical Committee. "For energy providers and consumers to engage in dynamic pricing, we need standards that support automated, timely, and secure communication of pricing, capacity, and other grid information."

"Our work at OASIS will enable consumers to take advantage of lower energy costs by deferring or accelerating usage," added William Cox, co-chair of the OASIS Energy Interoperation Technical Committee. "By enabling consistent data communication technology, the same model will be able to be used for homes, small businesses, commercial buildings, industrial facilities, and electric vehicles. The same communications could be used inside and outside microgrids in office parks, college campuses, and green neighborhoods."

The new OASIS Committee will base its work on the Open Automated Demand Response Communication Standards (OpenADR), donated by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Demand Response Research Center (DRRC).  The project has been identified as a central deliverable for the U.S. government's strategic SmartGrid initiative to create a smart and secure electric power grid using open standards.

"OASIS is committed to coordinating its efforts with NIST, the range of energy-related organizations, standards bodies, and government regulatory agencies worldwide. Our focus will be on what OASIS does best—advancing composed and composable specifications that leverage existing Web services and security standards,"  said Laurent Liscia, executive director of OASIS.

Participation in the OASIS Energy Interoperation Technical Committee is open to all interested parties. Archives of the Committee's work will be accessible to both members and non-members, and OASIS will offer a mechanism for public comment. 

Support for OASIS Energy Interoperation

CPower
"We are excited to participate directly in the efforts of the OASIS Energy Interoperation Technical Committee to accelerate the development and adoption of grid interoperability and energy management program standards," stated Gary Fromer, CEO, CPower, Inc. "In addition to supporting our collective work to build out smart grid infrastructure efficiently, intelligent common standards will support CPower's focused efforts to streamline demand response and energy efficiency programs for our customers and business partners, and further facilitate and extend their participation and earnings in these essential programs."

EnerNOC
"We believe that the energy industry is at a tipping point, and the thorough exploration and adoption of core consensus standards in addition to new emerging standards will be critical to the development of new products and services that will modernize the electric grid. EnerNOC is proud to lend its experience as an innovative technology thought leader and trusted partner to thousands of commercial and industrial sites to the OASIS consortium," said Darren Brady, chief operating officer, EnerNOC.

Grid Net
"Open standards are essential to a secure, innovative, extensible, scalable Smart Grid; that is why we incorporate them into every aspect of Grid Net's hardware and software products, and why we are delighted to work with OASIS Energy Interoperation Technical Committee members on the development of web services standards for the collaborative and transactive use of energy," said Ray Bell, president and CEO of Grid Net. "Together, Grid Net’s 4G smart meter technologies and the OASIS standards will enable the open, secure, trusted, collaborative and transactive use of energy – directly through the smart meter’s secure web server and local network interfaces."

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
"Applied research in areas of Automated DR technology such as OpenADR will enable Smart Grid DR systems to interoperate and scale, thus fostering open innovation. OpenADR brings information technology to the building control systems," explained Rish Ghatikar of Berkeley Lab. OpenADR has been pioneered by research at Berkeley Lab's Demand Response Research Center within its Environmental Energy Technologies Division and is funded by the California Energy Commission’s Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) Program.

Microsoft
"Technology will play an increasingly important role in managing the global energy issues. We see interoperability as an important part of helping the industry to achieve the increasingly stringent environmental goals. Microsoft is proud to play a role in the development of such new standards through the OASIS Energy Interoperation Technical Committee," said Troy Batterberry, Business Leader for Microsoft Hohm.

TIBCO
"TIBCO is pleased to be joining the OASIS Energy Interoperation Technical Committee to help drive the creation of SmartGrid transaction standards," said David Burke, Director, Product Management, at TIBCO Software Inc. "The consideration and adoption of industry-wide open standards will be a crucial component to the real-time exchange of dynamic grid information between the various distributed public and private energy providers' systems and consumers. We anticipate many years of successful collaboration and results from the new adoption committee, which will ultimately enable the electric power grid to operate more efficiently, reliably and safely."

Additional information:
OASIS Energy Interoperation Technical Committee
OpenADR