ETSI Approves Open Smart Grid Protocol (OSGP) for Grid Technologies

SOPHIA ANTIPOLIS, France, Jan. 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- ETSI has recently published two specifications for Smart Grid that will help drive the development and deployment of open, interoperable smart grid technologies internationally.

As the smart grid evolves, it will become commonplace for utilities to cooperate with grid-aware systems and devices to reduce power usage intelligently, giving commercial, industrial and municipal users reduced rates in exchange for lower consumption while increasing grid reliability and the use of renewable energy sources. Automated demand response, peak load management, and other programs can mean significant cost savings for commercial and residential customers. This is why it is important that vendors work together through open standards to increase the market for compatible products and technologies. Standards-based smart grid devices and systems can monitor and save energy, lower costs, improve productivity, enhance service, quality, safety, and convenience, and help in the transformation to a more energy efficient future and smarter electricity grid.

The two OSGP specifications that originated with ESNA and were published by ETSI for global use are:

• Group specification GS OSG 001: Open Smart Grid Protocol. Produced by the ETSI Open Smart Grid Industry Specification Group, this application layer protocol can be used with multiple communication media.
• Technical specification TS 103 908: Powerline Telecommunications (PLT); BPSK Narrow Band Power Line Channel for Smart Metering Applications. This specification defines a high-performance narrow band powerline channel for control networking in the smart grid that can be used with multiple smart grid devices. It was produced by the ETSI Technical Committee for Powerline Telecommunications (TC PLT).

"As the effects of globalization permeate further and accelerate, ETSI is providing businesses and the industry with efficient solutions for accessing and developing new and established world markets via standardization," said Luis Jorge Romero, director general of ETSI.

"ESNA has been very active during the past year in the various Smart Metering and Smart Grid standardisation activities across Europe as well as the rest of the world. We are honoured to share this latest achievement with OSGP being recognized by ETSI, and we anticipate sharing more milestones reached with other leading standards organizations in the coming year," said Bo Danielsen, president of ESNA and head of Smart Grid Projects at SEAS-NVE, the largest consumer-owned utility in Denmark.

"Industry's involvement in standards development is critical as standards contribute to innovation, enable interoperability, provide investment security to clients and contribute to fostering global markets, and moreover provide choice and investment security for our customers," said Bastian Fischer, VP Industry Strategy Utilities Global Business Unit at Oracle, ESNA board member and vice-chairman of the ETSI OSG Industry Specification Group. "Oracle is uniquely positioned to deliver mission-critical smart grid software applications that have been engineered to work together in collaboration with our partners. ESNA's success with ETSI will help ensure that Oracle and the smart grid ecosystem will provide reliable solutions to utilities that are complete, future proof, open, and cost-effective."

About ETSI
ETSI produces globally-applicable standards for Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), including fixed, mobile, radio, converged, aeronautical, broadcast and internet technologies and is officially recognized by the European Union as a European Standards Organization. ETSI is an independent, not-for-profit association whose more than 700 member companies and organizations, drawn from 62 countries across 5 continents worldwide, determine its work programme and participate directly in its work. For more information please visit: www.etsi.org

About ESNA
Energy Services Network Association (ESNA) is an independent global, not-for-profit association under Dutch law. Members are utilities, software, hardware and service providers, and solution integrators sharing a common goal and vision for promoting open standards for energy demand side management, smart grid and smart metering systems.  The association promotes the adoption of the Open Smart Grid Protocol (OSGP) and related services and infrastructure, based on Networked Energy Services (NES), together with the value-added applications for secure, reliable and cost-effective automatic meter management, smart grid management, billing, CRM, CIS and other applications.

More information about ESNA can be found at http://www.esna.org or by emailing [email protected].

About OSGP
In 2010, ESNA members announced their intent to publish OSGP as an open standard, enabling independent implementation of interoperable meters and other smart grid devices from multiple vendors on the same network. Built on open ISO/IEC and IEEE standards, OSGP adds additional security and reliability services necessary to properly network and manage devices in the smart grid. The OSGP standard will ensure reliability, robustness, and efficiency of the smart grid, and as applications are deployed such as point-of-use monitoring and control of power usage, it will enable utilities to reduce peak loads and pass on energy cost savings to consumers. In addition to building OSGP-compliant solutions, utilities can better avoid vendor lock-in and purchase best-in-class products to achieve better ROI.

SOURCE ETSI