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Smart grids and smart metering (RP2023)

(A.) Policy and legislation

(A.1) Policy objectives

The energy system is undergoing considerable changes, mainly driven by decarbonisation, decentralisation and digitalisation, calling for smarter, flexible, responsive networks and markets that empower consumers and place them at the heart of it all.

Important policy milestones for this green and digital transformation are the EU's energy and climate targets for 2030 which also underpin Europe's leading role in the fight against climate change. The  Fit for 55 Delivering the European Green Deal strategy is setting a 55% reduction target in net EU greenhouse gas emissions compared to 1990, and is increasing the current EU-level target of at least 32%(10) (for the share of renewable energy consumed in the EU),  to at least 40% by 2030 doubling the current renewables share of 19.7% in just a decade. In this context, the electricity networks have a central role to play. In 2018, electricity represented 21% of the EU's final energy consumption with renewables making up a share of 34% of gross production (reference: Eurostat).

Moreover, the European Commission proposed a Path to the Digital Decade, a concrete plan to achieve the digital transformation of our society and economy by 2030. This will pave the way for the twin digital and green transformation of the energy sector to benefit from state-of-the-art digital solutions with lower environmental footprint and higher energy and material efficiency, leading to a more resilient, efficient and greener energy system.

The consumer position in the energy value chain is also very different now compared to what it used to be. The consumer is not the passive end ring in this chain anymore, paying without question the bills of incumbent's utilities. Instead, the consumer has the opportunity to choose between many energy suppliers and service providers to obtain the best deal and benefits. When dynamic pricing and contracts supporting it become available, then consumers, equipped with the necessary information on conditions, benefits and potential risks, will also be able to make an informed choice and opt for such offers and accordingly change their energy behaviour at their comfort, consuming when prices are low and enjoying concrete benefits. Furthermore, consumers can be really active players by directly or through a third party providing services, e.g. flexibility to network operators when they ask either to increase or decrease consumption, if it is needed for system balancing or grid congestion management (demand response). Additionally they can also become (micro) generators themselves (the so-called prosumers) and switch their premises, if necessary, into island mode. Standardisation in the energy sector should consider the physical limitations of the grid, the data privacy, cybersecurity, the market aspects and the resilience of the energy sector.

In this digital transformation of the energy sector, the sector and cross-sector sharing of data, in a customer-centric, secure and trustworthy manner, as well as the deployment of technologies facilitating that, are key.  This makes the need more relevant than ever to set out the interoperability requirements and non-discriminatory and transparent procedures for access to data at the energy sector level, and beyond. Big Data and the Internet of Things, as well as Cloud-Edge continuum, edge intelligence, digital twins, 5G and artificial intelligence, smart grids and smart meters, smart homes, smart storage and smart charging data sharing platforms, distributed ledger technologies (DLT) will be key drivers for a successful digitalisation of energy. To succeed, we will need to build on achievements in the three pillars of the Digital Single Market – better access to digital goods and services, an environment where digital networks and services can prosper, and digital as a driver for growth. Energy and digital will come together most closely if we enable European companies to deliver energy intelligent products and services across Europe without undue restrictions and if the energy sector actively contributes to horizontal Digital Single Market policies. The single energy market and the digital single market must go hand-in-hand, as in reality they feed each other.

Smart grids are a clear example of digital meeting energy, as they are about information exchange and making necessary data available to interested parties. Smart grids will enable improved energy efficiency and the integration of vast amounts of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) from an increasingly decentralised generation and new loads such as electric vehicles and energy storage; provide an opportunity to boost the retail market competitiveness and worldwide technological leadership of EU technology providers, and a platform for traditional energy companies or new market entrants such as ICT companies, including SMEs, to develop new, innovative energy services. That dynamic should enhance competition in the retail market, incentivise reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and provide an opportunity for economic growth.

(A.2) EC perspective and progress report

Standards are needed to cover the communication requirements of grid management, balancing and interfacing with the millions of new renewable energy sources, as well as for the complex interactions of the new distributed energy market, which is also enriched with demand-side response services.

Communication standards will also be crucial for the deployment of electric vehicles and the establishment of smart cities. Harmonised communication protocols will provide standard components and interfaces giving ‘plug-and-play’ capability for any new entrant to the network, such as renewables or electric vehicles, or the use of open architectures based on global communication standards. Testing and profiling should also be considered in addition to standardisation, to further promote interoperability.

A major challenge is engaging the right stakeholders to cooperate and undertake the standardisation work, while taking into account the different requirements for smart grid management (of relevance to energy producers, the utility network operators, etc.) and smart consumption (involving the end consumer).

The EC has been working towards interoperability of the solutions and standardisation for several years now. The main coordination reference for smart grids at European level is the Smart Grids Task Force, which was given the mission to advise the European Commission on policy and regulatory directions at European level and to coordinate the first steps towards the implementation of Smart Grids in accordance with the energy legislation. It has issued key reports on standards, cybersecurity and flexibility markets. These are largely agreed by industry, European standards organisations, public authorities and consumer organisations. A number of DGs are currently participating there: ENER and CNECT (co-chair), GROW, JUSTICE, and JRC, along with more than thirty associations representing all relevant stakeholders, from both sectors – energy and telecommunications, and experts from national regulatory agencies and industrial market actors, as well as consumer associations and other relevant stakeholders.

To support and accelerate the rollout of smart energy grid solutions, the Commission issued to the European Standardisation Organisations the M/441mandate for smart meters and the M/490 for smart grids (M/490), in 2009 and 2011 respectively. These mandates were closely followed by the Smart Grids Task Force and its Expert Group 1 that focuses on standards and interoperability. The mandates were successfully completed by the experts of the relevant Coordination Groups (SM-CG and SG-CG ) who delivered a number of pertinent deliverables and standards. These Groups continue, also following their merging as of January 2021 into the CEN-CENELEC-ETSI Coordination Group on Smart Grids (CG-SG), to provide input to the development and maintenance of new and existing relevant standards. They also receive inputs from and provide input to the European Commission’s activities related to standardisation, and remain actively engaged in the work of the Smart Grids Task Force. The new CG-SG aims to promote the deployment of open and interoperable data architectures, based on European and international standards. The scope also includes any standards needed to design, operate and maintain electrical grids securely and efficiently. In the specific area of metering, its scope includes electricity, water, gas and heat/cooling metering devices and systems, and associated architectures.

CG-SG is currently contributing to the Smart Grids Task Force work that aims with its expert knowledge at advising the Commission on designing and setting up interoperability requirements as well as transparent and non-discriminatory procedures for access and exchange of electricity (and gas) data in the EU. The outcome of this work, amongst others, will inspire the Commission’s drafting of the Implementing Acts on data as provided for in Article 24 of the Electricity Directive (EU) 2019/944 .

Specifically on cybersecurity, the Smart Grids Task Force experts developed a comprehensive sector-specific strategy on how to reinforce the implementation of the NIS directive at energy sector level (see their respective report published in September 2019. This activity falls under the overall effort to increase cybersecurity awareness and preparedness in the energy sector, as also illustrated by the latest Commission recommendation in this field and also fosters synergies between the Energy Union and the Digital Single Market agendas.

Moreover, benefiting from valuable contributions from our stakeholders, the EC fostered the creation of a common interoperability language called SAREF (Smart Appliances REFerence ontology), which became a standard of ETSI and OneM2M (the Global initiative for Internet of Things standardisation) in 2015. This was a first step and then we moved forward in order to fully enable, on a technical interoperability level, the smart grid and its demand-response mechanism. This work was supported via an EC funded study, which delivered a live demo in the autumn of 2017 and final results and recommendations in July 2018. The results of the study were fed in the standards along the full demand-side flexibility chain and are being piloted on a European scale (multiple sites in 7 member states) in the large scale IoT pilot project Interconnect on smart grids and homes. The project has developed an architecture and adapters/connectors that can be used to SAREFise the full energy system and allow for an abundance of innovative interoperable services. In parallel work has been completed on extending SAREF to other verticals (e.g. automotive, water, health, etc.) allowing thus the creation of a smart city interoperable ecosystem. Cooperation with CEN & CENELEC is foreseen to further align SAREF with the data models developed at ISO and IEC. Work is being planned to create an EN standard that would cover the principles of SAREF thus avoiding the need for annual update.

Within the general framework of the Internet of Things and 5G, the EC is looking at all other communication aspects and needs of smart energy and including the necessary conditions in the development of said communication domains as well as aligning with the other domains such as automotive, health, smart cities, etc.

Last but not least, in line with the Communication on Energy System Integration, the Commission proposed a Digitalisation of Energy Action Plan  which aims to ensure the shift towards renewables, connected mobility, smart buildings, and a more integrated, responsive energy system with smart energy grids as its backbone and consumers at its core. The plan will also support the implementation of REPowerEU , the joint action for affordable, secure and sustainable energy.

See also the work of the International Agency on Energy, particularly its recommendations in terms of interoperability.

(A.3) References 
  • COM(2020) 299 final Powering a climate-neutral economy: An EU Strategy for Energy System Integration
  • COM(2020) 66 final A European strategy for data
  • COM(2019) 640 final The European Green Deal
  • Regulation (EU) 2019/941 on risk –preparedness in the electricity sector
  • Regulation (EU) 2019/943 on the internal market for electricity
  • Directive (EU) 2019/944 on common rules for the internal market for electricity
  • Commission Recommendation C(2019)240 final on cybersecurity in the energy sector, and supporting Staff Working Document SWD(2019)1240 final
  • COM(2017) 228 final: Mid-Term Review on the implementation of the Digital Single Market Strategy - A Connected Digital Single Market for All
  • Directive 2014/94/EU on the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure
  • Recommendation 2014/724/EU on the data protection impact assessment template for smart grid and smart metering systems
  • COM(2014) 356 Benchmarking smart metering deployment in the EU-27 with a focus on electricity; and accompanying SWD(2014) 188 and SWD(2014) 189
  • C (2013) 7243 Delivering the internal electricity market and making the most of public intervention; and accompanying SWD (2013) 442 Incorporating demand side flexibility, in particular demand response, in electricity markets
  • Recommendation COM 2012/148/EU on preparations for the roll-out of smart metering systems
  • COM(2012) 663 Making the internal energy market work
  • COM(2011) 202 Smart Grids: from innovation to deployment
  • COM(2010) 245 “A Digital Agenda for Europe": actions 71 & 73 address respectively minimum functionalities to promote smart grid interoperability and a common set of functionalities for smart meters and are directly related to the standardisation activities at CEN & CENELEC and ETSI.
  • Directives 2009/72/EC and 2009/73/EC: Internal market in electricity and natural gas;
  • Directive 2009/29/EC amending Directive 2003/87/EC so as to improve and extend the greenhouse gas emission allowance trading scheme of the Community;
  • Directive 2009/28/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Use of Energy from renewable sources.
  • Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading within the Community and amending Council Directive 96/61/EC 
  • Mandates M/490 , M/441 and M/468  from EU/EFTA to the ESOs
  • COM(2015) 192: A Digital Single Market Strategy for Europe
  • COM(2015) 339: Delivering a new deal for energy consumers
  • Regulation (EU) 2016/679 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation)
  • Regulation (EU) 2013/347 on guidelines for trans-European energy infrastructure
  • Directive 2012/27/EU on energy efficiency, amending Directives 2009/125/EC and 2010/30/EU and repealing Directives 2004/8/EC and 2006/32/EC
  • COM(2016)176: ICT Standardisation Priorities for the Digital Single Market
  • COM(2022) 108 final: REPowerEU   

(B.) Requested actions

Action 1: Active involvement and participation of CEN & CENELEC CG-SG experts in the ongoing work of the Smart Grids Task Force on interoperability for access to data in a smart grid environment, building upon available standards.  This is to prepare the ground for implementing acts on interoperability requirements and transparent and non-discriminatory procedures for access and exchange of data. The respective reports from this latest strand of work, as well as earlier deliverables from other activities of the Task Force are available on the smart grids task force dedicated webpage (CIRCA BC), which is a collaborative platform that gives access to all task-force documents, via the platform library”.

Action 2:  ETSI, CEN & CENELEC and the other relevant SDOs and related organisations (such as DLMS, KNX and others) should combine their efforts to further enrich and extend the SAREF4ENER extension as well as the main SAREF ontology (including interoperability profiles and associated justifications (interoperability cases) from large-scale projects). The ETSI SAREF portal, which was launched recently, could be one of the tools to be leveraged for this purpose. Security aspects should be investigated. All new additions to the SAREF specifications should be transposed into the OneM2M specifications. A number of European projects could contribute to a larger scale deployment of SAREF-based solutions such as the Operational Digital Platforms under CEF Digital and the deployment of a common European data space in the DIGITAL programme, which will be prepared in Horizon Europe. An EN describing the principles of SAREF, thus avoiding annual updates, which is in the pipeline, should be completed. The updates needed to make SAREF fit for digital twins, edge-cloud IoT continuum, AI as well as other recent technological developments should be investigated and developed.

Action 3: CEN & CENELEC, IEEE and OASIS to foster their cooperation to ensure complementary parallel standardisation efforts, to avoid serious conflicts between their respective standardisation deliverables. This action should notably be undertaken in the context of H2-type standards (the interface used for smart grid communication), distributed energy resources and the smart grids architecture model as developed under M/490.

Action 4: ETSI, CEN & CENELEC should collaborate with the H2020 IoT Large Scale Pilot on Smart Grids and Smart Homes INTERCONNECT to include the outcomes and recommendations from the project into the SAREF4ENER and SAREF4BLDG standards.  All new additions to the SAREF specifications should be transposed into the OneM2M specifications. The principles of SAREFisation should also be included.

Action 5: ETSI, CEN & CENELEC should collaborate with (or participate in) the Horizon Europe projects, which will establish the foundations for a Common European Energy Dataspace, and help identify, develop and standardise a set of common technical specifications for it. They should also collaborate with an upcoming Horizon Europe project on establishing an interoperable ecosystem in the energy area through creating a set of Minimum Interoperability Mechanisms for the energy sector.  

Action 6: SDOs and related stakeholders and initiatives should work towards cross-sector interoperability, in particular for data exchange between grid, building and mobility domains.

Action 7: SDOs, in particular their grid-oriented, mobility-oriented, DER-oriented and storage-oriented technical committees, should cooperate to develop standards enabling the electric vehicles (with their – on-board or off-board – chargers) to play an active role through demand-response up to offering grid services.

List of included standards groups:

  • Smart Grids
    • Smart grid security certification in Europe - Challenges and recommendations, December 2014
    • CEN-CENELEC-ETSI Coordination Group on Smart Energy Grids (CG-SEG)
      • Final reports of the CG-SEG under M/490 and its iteration;
      • "Set of Standards" and "Privacy and Security" CG-SEG reports
      • The Interoperability Tool (IOP-Tool) of the CG-SEG, which is an extremely useful tool for finding the standards used;
    • Building energy management system
    • Building automation and control systems (ISO)

Smart Meters

    • Interoperability, Standards and Functionalities applied in the large scale roll out of smart metering - European Smart Grids Task Force Expert Group 1 – Standards and Interoperability, October 2015
    • Interoperability of interfaces for the large scale roll out of smart metering systems in EU Member States - European Smart Grids Task Force Expert Group 1 – Standards and Interoperability, August 2016
    • CEN-CENELEC-ETSI Coordination Group on Smart Grids (CG-SG)
      • Final reports of the CG-SG under M/411
      • CG-SG "Privacy and Security approach" reports
      • CG-SG 2017 Work Programme
    • European Commission Office for Infrastructure and Logistics – Manual Of Standard Building Specifications

(C.) Activities and additional information 

(C.1) Related standardisation activities

On the level of technical standardisation and coordination of work, CEN & CENELEC (notably through the CEN-CENELEC-ETSI Coordination Group on Smart Energy Grids), IEEE and OASIS will foster their collaboration including identifying whether there are serious conflicts between their respective standardisation deliverables which may have a negative impact on interoperability and the market adoption of smart grid solutions. This especially concerns the relation between H2-type standards (notably EN 50491-12-1), the EN IEC 61850 series (Distributed Energy Resources), EN IEC 62746, EN IEC 61689-5, EN IEC 62325 with IEEE Std 2030.5-2013 and OASIS OpenADR.

Standards development

CEN-CENELEC-ETSI

At present mandate M/490 given to CEN-CENELEC-ETSI by the Commission in March 2011 can be considered as completed.

The three ESOs have agreed to continue their collaboration in relation to smart grids following the completion of the work under the standardisation request, under the CEN-CLC-ETSI Coordination Group on Smart Energy Grids (CG-SEG). This group will focus on security and interoperability, follow up new developments in the field of smart grids and actively promote the results of its work at European and international levels.

In this context, two reports have been prepared by the CG-SEG to maintain transverse consistency and promote continuous innovation in the field of Smart Grids:

The Smart Grid Set of Standards report is the new release of the original “First set of standards” and proposes an updated framework of standards which can support Smart Grids deployment in Europe. It provides a selection guide setting out, for the most common Smart Grid systems the relevant set of existing and upcoming standards to be considered, from CEN & CENELEC, ETSI and further from IEC, ISO, ITU or even coming from other bodies when needed. It also explains how these are able to be used, where, and for which purpose. standardisation gaps have been identified and the related standardisation work program has been defined. The results of these activities will be included in future releases of this report.

Cyber Security and Privacy report: In this report, security standardisation specific to Smart Energy Grid and security standardisation targeting generic standards are further monitored and analysed with the focus on two specific use cases: decentralized energy resource (DER) and substation automation. It shows the applicability and interrelationship between these two groups of standards. Furthermore, the Smart Grid Information Security approach has been followed to show the applicability of different standards on the selected, specific use cases for Smart Energy Grid deployments.

Regarding electromobility, a work programme and a list of relevant standards for the charging of electric vehicles was last updated in November 2014. Regarding charging points for electric vehicles of interest to the eMobility coordination group, and in support of the implementation of the alternative fuels infrastructure Directive 2014/94/EU, a new standardisation request was issued to the ESOs in March 2015. ETSI and the oneM2M Partnership project are active in the area of machine-to-machine (M2M) with some relation to smart grids. ETSI is also developing radio technologies for wireless interconnection in home automation networks with applications such as smart metering and energy control in the scope of the technology.

CENELEC

CLC/TC 57 'Power systems management and associated information exchange' develops European standards, in collaboration with the IEC, for power systems control equipment and systems including EMS (Energy Management Systems), SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition). CLC/TC 57 is providing amendments to the ENs on ‘Communication networks and systems for power utility automation’ (EN 61850 series). CLC/TC 57 will also publish European Standards related to the Application integration at electric utilities (prEN 61968 series), energy management system application program interface (EMS-API) (prEN 61970 series) and on Power systems management and associated information exchange (EN 62351 series).

CLC/TC 205 'Home and Building Electronic Systems (HBES)' is responsible for the development of the EN 50090 series (Home & Building Electronic Systems protocol suite) and the EN 50491 series 'General requirements for Home and Building Electronic Systems (HBES) and Building Automation and Control Systems (BACS)', and notably:

  • EN 50491-11:2015 'General requirements for Home and Building Electronic Systems (HBES) and Building Automation and Control Systems (BACS) - Part 11: Smart Metering - Application Specifications - Simple External Consumer Display';
  • EN 50491-12-1:2018 'General requirements for Home and Building Electronic Systems (HBES) and Building Automation and Control Systems (BACS) - Smart grid - Application specification - Interface and framework for customer - Part 12-1: Interface between the CEM and Home/Building Resource manager - General Requirements and Architecture'
  • prEN 50491-12-2:2022'General requirements for Home and Building Electronic Systems (HBES) and Building Automation and Control Systems (BACS) - Part 12-2: Smart grid – Application specification - Interface and framework for customer - Interface between the Home / Building CEM'

         CLC/TC205 also completed work on the following additional work items:

  • EN 50090-6-2 'Home and Building Electronic Systems (HBES)- Part 6-2 IoT Semantic Ontology_Model_Description'

CLC/TC 205 further activities:

  • Further work on the EN50090-x series, including
  • standardization of an HBES open communication system API for 3rd Parties (future EN50090-6-3)
  • standardization of an extension to the HBES communication system allowing communication across IPv6 networks (future EN50090-4-4)
  • Possible extension of the EN 50491-11:2015 'General requirements for Home and Building Electronic Systems (HBES) and Building Automation and Control Systems (BACS) - Part 11: Smart Metering - Application Specifications - Simple External Consumer Display' to extend the standard with legally relevant data to be sent over the H1 interface
  • Further work on the EN50491-12-x series in close cooperation with IEC SC23K
  • Under the banner of CLC/TC 205, WG19 has been created, open, to relevant experts from other TCs e.g:
    • CLC/TC 82 ‘Solar photovoltaic energy systems’;
    • CLC/TC 69X ‘Electrical systems for electric road vehicles’;
    • CLC/SR 120 ‘Electrical Energy Storage (EES) Systems’;
    • CLC/TC 57 ‘Power systems management and associated information exchange’;
    • CLC/TC 13 'Electrical energy measurement and control'
    • CEN/TC294‘Communication systems for meters’
    • ETSI

Focusing on the S2 link (within a building, between customer energy management and energy resources including PV, storage, E-vehicle, white goods,…) these experts will work on producing a common ontology, defining the potential data at the interface with these energy resources, based on already known use cases, but in a “technology agnostic manner”. For non-overlapping topics, WG19 hopes to also endorse the extensions of the SAREF4ENER that are the result of the Interconnect EU project.
This work will also feed the current activities of CLC/TC 205/WG 18 on Smart Grid/Smart Home Data Modelling. 

  • Under the banner of CLC/TC 205, WG20 has been created, which has set as goals to develop a technical specification guideline for cyber security for HBES/BACS, the future EN TS 50491-7

https://standards.cencenelec.eu/dyn/www/f?p=305:7:0:25:::FSP_ORG_ID,FSP_LANG_ID:1258281

CLC/TC 8X ‘System aspects of electrical energy supply’, develops standards to facilitate the functioning of electricity supply systems in open markets. ln 2023, they will publish the revision of EN 50160 ‘Voltage characteristics of electricity supplied by public electricity networks’. In addition, the group will pursue the development of EN 50549 Part 1 and Part 2 that set requirements for generating plants to be connected in parallel with Low Voltage and Medium Voltage distribution networks, respectively.

CLC/TC 82 ‘Solar photovoltaic energy systems’, CLC/ 88 ‘Wind turbines’ and CLC/SR 117 ‘Solar thermal electric plants’ will continue to develop European Standards on Electric Generation, in close collaboration with the IEC.

CLC/TC 38 'Instrument transformers' will continue to maintain the EN 61689 series on Instrument transformers.

CLC/TC 17AC 'High-voltage switchgear and controlgear' is responsible for the maintenance of the EN 62271 series on High-voltage switchgear and control gear.

CLC/TC 13  Communications protocol standards continue to be expanded to cover developments in technology, including LoRa, WiSUN, CoAP and 5G as well as further enhancements to power line carrier based communications.
New metering standards to cater for DC networks will be developed specific for EV charging, micro generation and other emerging low carbon energy applications, required for changes to the MID as specified in M541. 

  • the drive to allow a remote meter display that can be legally relevant to allow more innovation in smart metering.  This will require cooperation between TC13 and TC205 WG16 to revise EN 50491-11 (interface to simple displays) to ensure data integrity across the H1 interface.
  • the recent establishment of TC13 WG3 to address the need for secure and authenticated metering data can be accessed from EV chargers.


CENELEC Technical Bodies - CLC/TC 13 (cencenelec.eu)

CLC/TC 59X 'Performance of household and similar electrical appliances' is responsible for EN 50631-x:2017 ’Household appliances network and grid connectivity', the successor of the outdated EN 50523:2009 ’Household appliances interworking'. TC59X is already working on the edition 2 of EN50631-x, which will be submitted to enquiry in autumn 2021.
CENELEC Technical Bodies - CLC/TC 59X (cencenelec.eu)

CEN

CEN/TC 92 'Water meters', CEN/TC 176 'Heat meters' and CEN/TC 237 'Gas meters' develop standards in response to the standardisation Request (M/541) in the frame of Directive on Measuring Instruments (2014/32/EU), relevant to Smart Grid standardisation.

In 2018, these technical committees will finalize the revisions of standards on the following topics:

  • CEN/TC 92 – the series on water meters for cold potable water and hot water;
  • CEN/TC 176 – the series on heat meters
  • CEN/TC 237 – the standard on ultrasonic domestic gas meters

CEN/TC 294 deals with standardization of communications interfaces for metering and submetering systems for Water, Fuel Gases, Heat and similar energies and fluids where the protocols are applied to the meters, sensors and actuators and systems used to provide metering services. Security features like Confidentiality, Authenticity and Integrity are provided at the application and lower layers. Cooperation with CENELEC and ETSI, in relation to consistent protocol and use of spectrum, is an essential condition for achieving interoperability between entities in systems. Excluded from this scope are areas, which are under the responsibility of CLC/TC 205 and CEN/TC 247.

DLMS (Device Language Message Service)

DLMS/COSEM (EN IEC 62056 series), the most widely deployed smart meter protocol is not listed as the state of the art protocol for smart metering and demand side control applications. In the forthcoming roadmap due for release next year,  gaps in standards will be identified that will need to be addressed in order to support Demand-Size Flexibility.  These will include adhoc profiles for smart meters as well as Industrial/Residential/Commercial Appliances, Residential EV Charging Stations and Energy and Water Health & Usage Monitoring Systems.  This will allow standards based solutions to be developed delivering to market security, interoperability and compatible devices that can be controlled from an energy consumption view point to address the most important challenge of managing the consumption demand. 

DLMS/COSEM specifies the data model, the messaging protocol and media-specific communication profiles. Since 2002, DLMS/COSEM has been internationally standardised as part of the IEC 62056 series Electricity metering data exchange - The DLMS/COSEM suite and the EN 13757 standards suites. DLMS/COSEM is under constant development to ensure it remains compatible with all current and emerging communications technologies and the latest demand side management applications.

ETSI

ETSI TC DECT has published updates of the DECT-2020 NR (New Radio) technology (ETSI TS 103 636 parts 1 to 5) during 2022. DECT-2020 NR supports Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC) and massive Machine Type Communications (mMTC).

TC DECT has produced DECT-2020 New Radio (NR) access profile for smart metering including smart electricity meters. Future work on access profiles will include new device types for other smart grid applications. 

IEC

IEC has a number of technical committees dealing with smart grids and smart metering:

  • IEC SyC Smart Energy: Smart Energy
  • IEC/TC 8: Systems Aspects for Electrical Energy Supply
  • IEC/TC 8/SC 8A: Grid Integration of Large-capacity Renewable Energy (RE) Generation
  • IEC/TC 8/SC 8B: Decentralized electrical energy systems
  • IEC/TC 13: Electrical Energy Measurement and Control (including Smart Metering and demand side management))
  • IEC/TC 17: High-voltage switchgear and controlgear
  • IEC/TC 23: Electrical Accessories
  • IEC/TC 23/WG12: Home and Building Electronic Systems (HBES)
  • IEC/TC 23/SC23 K: Electrical Energy Efficiency products
  • IEC/TC 38: Instrument transformers
  • IEC/TC 57: Power Systems Management and Associated Information Exchange
  • IEC/TC 64: Electrical installations and protection against electric shock
  • IEC/TC 65: Industrial-process measurement, control and automation
  • IEC/TC 69: Electric road vehicles and electric industrial trucks
  • IEC/TC 82: Solar photovoltaic energy systems
  • IEC/TC 85: Measuring equipment for electrical and electromagnetic quantities
  • IEC/TC 88: Wind energy generation systems
  • IEC/TC 95: Measuring relays and protection equipment
  • IEC/TC 120: Electrical Energy Storage (EES) Systems
  • IEC/TC 121: Switchgear and controlgear and their assemblies for low voltage
  • ISO/IEC JTC 1: Information technology
  • IEC/TC23/SC23K /WG3: Customer Energy Management Systems is progressing work items on:
    • IEC 63345 ED1: Energy Efficiency Systems - Simple External Consumer Display
  • IEC 63402 ED1: Energy Efficiency Systems - Smart Grid - Customer Energy Management Systems - General Requirements and Architecture 

The IEC SyC Smart Energy published a new version of the Smart Grid roadmap as IEC TR 63097:2017 'Smart grid standardisation roadmap'.

Systems committee on smart energy (SyC Smart Energy) provides systems level standardisation and coordination in the areas of smart grids and smart energy, including interactions in the fields of heat and gas. http://www.iec.ch/dyn/www/f?p=103:186:0::::FSP_ORG_ID,FSP_LANG_ID:11825

The IEC smart grid mapping tool provides a graphical and interactive overview of all smart grid related standards: https://mapping.iec.ch/#/maps/1

ISO/IEC JTC 1

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 27 has started the review of ISO/IEC TR 27019:2013 'Information technology - Security techniques-- Information security management guidelines based on ISO/IEC 27002 for process control systems specific to the energy utility industry'. ISO/IEC TR 27019:2013 provides guiding principles based on ISO/IEC 27002 for information security management applied to process control systems as used in the energy utility industry.

IEEE

The standardisation work of IEEE not only covers ICT, but also aspects of electrical power generation and distribution, including demand response, renewable energy sources, security, reliability and systems engineering. ICT standards work in Smart Grid includes:

  • Smart Grid Interoperability: The IEEE 2030 series is based on an interoperability reference model that defines data flows for reliable, secure, bi-directional flow of electric power and identifies the necessary communication infrastructure, incl. for electric vehicles.
  • Networking and Communications: The IEEE 1901 series of standards addresses broadband/narrowband over powerline; the 802 family of standards addresses many other aspects of networking.
  • Cyber Security for Smart Grid: Multiple standards addressing cybersecurity for Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEEE 1686), Substation Automation (IEEE C37.240, IEEE 1711 series).
  • Smart Metering and Demand Response: Multiple standards including IEEE 170X series and IEEE 1377 for communication protocols, 2030.5 for smart energy profiles, and IEEE 1901 series for smart metering functionality.
  • Substation Automation: Standards include time protocol, synchronization work, and electric power system communication, such as IEEE 1815 (DNP3), IEC/IEEE 61850-9-3, IEEE C37.238, IEEE C37.118 series, etc.
  • Electric Vehicle Charging: Standards include IEEE 2030.1.1, which specifies the design interface of electric vehicles as well as direct current and bi-directional chargers that utilize battery electric vehicles as power storage devices

For a list of these and other IEEE standardisation activities on Smart Grid, please see: https://ieeesa.io/eu-rolling-plan

ITU

ITU-R

ITU-R Working Party 1A on “Spectrum engineering techniques” deals with spectrum engineering techniques, including unwanted emissions, frequency tolerance, technical aspects of sharing, computer programs, technical definitions, Earth-station coordination areas and technical spectrum efficiency. Among the current study topics, ITU-R Working Party 1A deals with the impact on radiocommunication systems from wireless and wired data transmission technologies used for the support of power grid management systems.

In June 2021, a revision to Report ITU-R SM.2351 on “Smart grid utility management systems” was published. This document provides an overview of Smart Grid systems and details of the wide array of technologies that are available for the monitoring and control of Smart Grid networks and Smart Meter networks. These technologies include wired, e.g., power line telecommunications (PLT), and wireless communications, e.g. 6.25 / 12.5 / 25 kHz narrow band technologies up to multiple-MHz broadband technologies. This Report focuses principally on the electricity industry where the changes are most rapid and extensive, but similar developments are taking place in gas and water infrastructure (including clean water, wastewater and sewerage, and hot water). The main text includes an overview of the spectrum available in various countries for Smart Grids and Smart Meter systems.

ITU-T

ITU-T Focus Group Smart Grid completed its work in December 2011 and adopted deliverables at http://itu.int/en/ITU-T/focusgroups/smart. The work was taken over by ITU-T SG15.  ITU-T SG15 developed standards on power line communication (PLC, Recommendation ITU-T G.990x-series), which is one of the most important technologies for smart grid. ITU-T SG15 recently approved the following technical paper:

  • Use of G.hn technology for smart grid

Detailed information is described in the document “smart grid standardisation overview and work plan” developed by ITU-T SG15 and available at:
http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/studygroups/Pages/sg15-sg.aspx .

More information is available at https://itu.int/go/tsg15 (SG15) and https://www.itu.int/net4/ITU-T/lists/q-text.aspx?Group=15&Period=17&QNo=3&Lang=en (Q3/15).

ITU-T Study Group 5 on Environment, Climate Change and Circular Economy, within Question 6/5 and Q11/5 is working on environmental  efficiency of digital technologies and climate change mitigation and smart energy solutions. As part of its work, ITU-T SG5 has approved a set of Recommendations on Smart energy solutions for telecom sites (ITU-T L.1380), data centres (L.1381),  telecommunication rooms (L.1382) and cities and homes applications (L.1383).

ITU-T SG13 developed Recommendation ITU-T Y.2070 "Requirements and architecture of the home energy management system and home network services", ITU-T Y.2071 "Framework of micro energy grid" as well as ITU-T Y.2072 “Framework for an energy-sharing and trading platform". In addition, SG13 is working on QoS requirements for smart grid supported by IMT-2020 (Y.IMT2020-qos-req-sg), the distributed and virtualized energy storage systems (Y.dv-ess) and framework of trusted electricity brokerage for distributed energy resources (Y.energy-brokerage):
https://www.itu.int/itu-t/workprog/wp_item.aspx?isn=13977

https://www.itu.int/itu-t/workprog/wp_item.aspx?isn=15063

ITU-T SG17 approved  Recommendations ITU-T X.1331 “ Security guidelines for home area network (HAN) devices in smart grid system” and ITU-T X.1332“Security guidelines for smart metering services in smart grid” .

ITU-T SG20 approved Recommendation ITU-T Y.4209 “Requirements for interoperation of the smart port with the smart city”, Recommendation ITU-T Y.4419 “Requirements and Capability Framework of Smart Utility Metering (SUM)” and is working on the development of Recommendations on “Data format requirements and protocols for remote data collection in smart metering systems” (Y.DFR-SM), “Energy data model for city-level energy management platform” (Y.CL-EDM) and “Framework of city-level energy data sharing and analytics among buildings” (Y.energy-data).

More info: https://itu.int/go/tsg20

OASIS

The OASIS Energy Interoperation TC defines interaction between Smart Grids and their end nodes, including Smart Buildings, Enterprises, Industry, Homes, and Vehicles. The TC developed data and communication models that enable the interoperable and standard exchange of signals for dynamic pricing, reliability, and emergencies.

The OASIS Energy Market Information Exchange (eMIX) supports exchanging price information and product definitions in energy markets and to those following markets. Energy Interoperation relies on the EMIX Specification for communication of price and product defintion. EMIX defines the information for use in messages that convey this actionable information.

The OASIS Web Services Calendar (WS-Calendar) defines a cross-domain standard for services to enable machine-based scheduling of human-centric activities. An essential distinction between energy and other markets is that price is strongly influenced by time of delivery. EMIX conveys time and interval by incorporating WS-Calendar into tenders, contracts, and performance calls.

IETF

RFC6272 identifies the key infrastructure protocols of the Internet Protocol Suite for use in the Smart Grid. The target audience is those people seeking guidance on how to construct an appropriate Internet Protocol Suite profile for the Smart Grid. In practice, such a profile would consist of selecting what is needed for Smart Grid deployment from the picture presented here.

The ​​Energy Management (EMAN) WG has produced several specifications for an energy management framework, for power/energy monitoring and configuration. See ​http://datatracker.ietf.org/wg/eman/documents/ for the details. The framework focuses on energy management for IP-based network equipment (routers, switches, PCs, IP cameras, phones and the like).

Many of the IETF Working Groups listed under section 3.1.4 Internet of Things above are developing standards for embedded devices that may also be applicable to Smart grids.

​https://trac.ietf.org/trac/iab/wiki/Multi-Stake-Holder-Platform#SmartGrid

oneM2M

oneM2M has published Release 2A in March 2018 and its Release 3 in September 2018. Work is ongoing on Release 4.

The oneM2M includes specifications covering requirements, architecture, protocols, security, and management, abstraction and semantics. Release 2 added new functionality, particularly by expanding management, abstraction and semantics, security and privacy, and interworking with underlying technologies. oneM2M Release 3 adds seamless interworking with 3GPP network services for IoT.

(C.2) Other activities related to standardisation
EEBUS

The EEBUS Initiative is a non-profit organisation, based in Germany, with international members from the automotive, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, white goods, PV, energy storage as well as energy management sector. On behalf of the industry EEBUS, describes the communication interface (= application, data model, transport protocol) to enable the connection between energy management relevant devices as well as corresponding control systems.

To achieve a standardised communication interface EEBUS is active in several national, European and international standardisation bodies. In particular, EEBUS was and is significantly involved in the creation of the ontology SAREF4ENER, driven by the European Commission, with its toolbox SPINE as a data model for energy management relevant applications. SPINE is used today within EN 50631 (Household appliances network and grid connectivity) for White Goods as well as HVAC devices. Furthermore, SPINE is the relevant data model for the national application rule concerning the grid connection in Germany and has been introduced into IEC PT63380 in the context of electromobility.

OPEN CHARGE ALLIANCE

The Open Charge Alliance is an industry alliance, based in the Netherlands, of EV charging hardware and software vendors, and charging network operators and service providers. OCA’s mission is to foster global development, adoption, and compliance of the Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) and related standards through collaboration, education and testing. The Open Charge Alliance has promoted the benefits of the Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) in order to make Electric Vehicle (EV) networks open and accessible.

NIST

The US government sponsored a Smart Grid Interoperability Panel from 2009-2012 to spur cooperative industry and public agency development of open data standards for smart grid functionality:  http://www.nist.gov/smartgrid/priority-actions.cfm. In 2013, the management of this project was turned over to industry stakeholders as a continuing standards cooperation project: http://sgip.org/

JISC

Japanese Industrial Standards Committee (JISC) created a roadmap for international standardisation for smart grid.

SGCC

Unrelated to the CEN-CENELEC Smart Grid Coordination Group (SGCC) the State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC) Framework is in place under the same acronym. A lot of further national activities and roadmaps could be mentioned as well, such as those of Austria, Spain, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, South Korea and others.

KNX

KNX Association is a non-profit-oriented organization with headquarters in Brussels. Members are manufacturers developing devices for several applications for home and building control based on KNX like lighting control, shutter control, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, energy management, metering, monitoring, alarm/intrusion systems, household appliances, audio/video and more. Next to manufacturers, also service providers (utilities, telecom, etc.) can become a member of the KNX Association.

KNX is approved as an International Standard (ISO/IEC 14543-3-1 to 7 as well as ISO 22510) as well as a European Standard (CENELEC EN 50090 and CEN EN 13321-1) and Chinese Standard (GB/T 20965) for Home and Building Control.

(C.3) additional information

Security, privacy and management of control of the access to and ownership of data are essential for the development of smart grids. Without wide acceptance by commercial users and consumers, the role of smart grids would be limited to specific vertical markets only.

Mechanisms that allow users and providers to negotiate optimised usage, including planning and scheduling of availability and use of energy resources are addressed by CG-SEG and covered by CLC TC205, CLC TC13  and CLC/TC 57. IEC TC57 and IEC TC13 have a joint working group (JWG16) to ensure the CIM and COSEM models are compatible thereby ensure interoperability of protocols across grid control and metering systems.

  • The part of the grid inside the home domain is also an element that has a significant impact on energy efficiency. Several elements are needed: local protocols for home automation networks; a multidisciplinary standardised approach covering all aspects of the problem, from application semantics to indoor interconnection wired or wireless technologies. An extensive semantic-level for building (and possibly applicable for home) already exists and is provided by CENELEC TC 205 within the EN 50491 series which is also compatible with EN IEC 62056 (DLMS/COSEM).

Applications include lighting and energy control, appliances control, power monitoring, smart metering and buildings energy management; provision of elements for a global solution on smart appliances and home energy control, such as suitable radio protocols for indoor coverage.

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