On the heels of GridWeek 2009, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released a draft list of 77 standards intended to insure interoperability of new smart grid technologies and devices.

One of the biggest concerns with smart grid implementation is that the many devices and services coming into the market can communicate energy data seamlessly. This is specifically important for solar energy so that the full potential of solar technology can be taken to the next level. For example, let’s imagine that transportation has been electrified and your rooftop solar panels are configured to power your home and work smoothly to charge your first-generation plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV).  If it’s raining and solar energy is low, the house may decide to draw some power from your PHEV’s battery. This ability for devices to communicate is key to optimizing and cleaning our electricity supply and usage. Yet if the technology employed to draw power from PHEV batteries at the office parking garage is unable to “speak” with your older PHEV, we are in effect not optimizing our grid to full potential. Although an example that won’t come to fruition for quite some time, it illustrates the importance in establishing standards so that we have the smartest approach as technologies change and improve.

In his announcement this past Thursday, Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke argued that our smart grid

[E]fforts will fail to achieve their promise if we don’t knit together the various technologies that will make our current dumb electric grid smart. And that is what this NIST project is all about.

To find out more about the interoperability standards proposed, click here. The Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards Release 1.0 is is now open for a month-long public comment period.