Interoperability-the ability to exchange information in a timely, actionable manner-is a critical yet underdeveloped capability of the power system. Significant grid modernization has occurred in recent years, but the proliferation of technology and associated standards has only modestly improved interoperability. The expansion of distributed energy resources and other technologies, along with changing customer expectations, have complicated the interoperability challenge. This revision of the NIST Smart Grid Interoperability Framework uses evolving technology and power system architectures as context for describing a new set of interoperability perspectives. Distributed and customer-sited resources figure prominently in the future smart grid, as do intelligent distribution systems and other key integrators. As society modernizes the physical mechanisms by which we produce, manage, and consume electricity, strategies for system operations and economic structure will diversify. This diversification will benefit fromand eventually rely upon-enhanced interoperability. The benefits of interoperability are broad and reach all stakeholders at all scales. Interoperability is a hedge against technology obsolescence, maximizes the value of equipment investments by increasing usage for secondary purposes, and facilitates combinatorial innovation by allowing coordinated small actions across diverse stakeholders and devices to have grand impacts. The interoperability value proposition can be realized in any system domain, from the utility to the customer and beyond. Interoperability requires a cybersecurity approach that manages risk while opening new communication interfaces. The desired outcomes for the grid and the information exchanges that must be protected will have to be considered in concert and will benefit from a structured approach to system security. New interfaces can benefit from existing security processes. Testing and certification is a critical enabler of smart grid interoperability. However, the current industry focus on certifying conformance to individual standards is only the first step on the pathway to assuring interoperability for devices or systems, and cannot provide interoperability without significant additional effort. Many others have provided important ideas and facilitated processes that are the foundations for this Framework. The contributions of the following individuals were especially noteworthy and appreciated:

To conduct a more complete analysis of low-energy and net-zero energy buildings that considers both the operating and embodied energy/emissions, members of the building community look to life-cycle assessment (LCA) methods. This paper examines differences in the relative impacts of cost-optimal energy efficiency measure combinations depicting residential buildings up to and beyond net-zero energy consumption on operating and embodied flows using data from the Building Industry Reporting and Design for Sustainability (BIRDS) Low-Energy Residential Database. Results indicate that net-zero performance leads to a large increase in embodied flows (over 40%) that offsets some of the reductions in operational flows, but overall life-cycle flows are still reduced by over 60% relative to the state energy code. Overall, building designs beyond net-zero performance can partially offset embodied flows with negative operational flows by replacing traditional electricity generation with solar production, but would require an additional 8.34 kW (18.54 kW in total) of due south facing solar PV to reach net-zero total life-cycle flows. Such a system would meet over 239% of operational consumption of the most energy efficient design considered in this study and over 116% of a state code-compliant building design in its initial year of operation.

Technological change in the electric power sector has progressed rapidly and there now is need for the development and evaluation of new smart grid architectures. This technical note discusses the current conditions of the U.S. electric grid and the economics of interoperability within the context of five representative architectural tracks developed by Pacific Northwest National Labs.

Automated systems for network protection, outage management, and restoration enable electric utilities to maintain service continuity through network reconfiguration. We evaluate the impact of interoperability investments on distribution system resilience during Hurricane Irma through a reduced form analysis of sustained customer outages. The expected number of interruption hours during that hurricane was relatively lower for regions of the Florida distribution grid that invested more in interoperability enhancements, all else being equal. We use advanced metering infrastructure penetration as a proxy and leading indicator of investment in interoperability enhancements. Employing only publicly available data resources, we conservatively estimate that Florida counties that made these investments realized nearly $1.7 billion of operational resilience benefits in the form of avoided customer interruption costs during Hurricane Irma.

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