Industry Leaders Bring Open Smart Grid Protocol (OSGP) to Market

The Energy Services Network Association (ESNA), a non-profit corporation composed of utilities, manufacturers, and integrators announced today that it will publish, maintain, and certify devices compatible with the Open Smart Grid Protocol (OSGP). Built on open, proven standards for control networking, and pioneered by Echelon Corporation (NASDAQ:ELON), the Open Smart Grid Protocol has become a de facto standard for smart meters and smart grid infrastructure. By publishing OSGP as an open standard, it will enable independent implementation of interoperable meters and other smart grid devices from multiple vendors on the same network. This gives utilities the ability to buy "best of breed” products and to avoid vendor lock-in that increases costs and reduces innovation. The announcement was made today at Metering Europe in Vienna, Austria, and was supported by an array of manufacturers, integrators, and utilities.

"Standards will speed the development and deployment of the smart grid,” said Gordon Pedersen, President of ESNA and head of smart grid projects at SEAS-NVE, the largest consumer-owned utility in Denmark. "The smart grid is about more than just smart meters, it is smart meters, smart sensors, smart switchgear and other smart equipment working together to make the grid more reliable, robust, and efficient. OSGP fills a void in the market by bringing an open, field-proven, standard that addresses the needs of a broad range of smart grid devices, and not just smart meters. Working with our members and partners, ESNA looks forward to formalizing and publishing OSGP as a European and international standard for smart grid communications to benefit utilities, their customers, and suppliers.”

"IBM supports initiatives like the one from Echelon & ESNA that render public Echelon communications protocols and interfaces,” said Guido Bartels, General Manager, Energy & Utilities Industry at IBM and Chairman, GridWise Alliance. "This enhances interoperability and open standards which are key elements of the complex systems needed to enable smarter energy implementations around the world.”

"Every market has benefited from open standards, from telecommunications to ecommerce,” said Ron Sege, President and CEO of Echelon. "OSGP promises to do exactly the same for the smart grid market – energizing, expanding and catalyzing its growth in existing markets and opening new ones. Echelon has a long history of creating de facto market standards that mature into sanctioned standards by governing bodies worldwide. Given the huge market adoption and tremendous support from industry leaders, we expect to achieve similar results with OSGP.”

Manufacturers joining in support of the initiative including: Eaton, a global manufacturer of equipment for the utility industry; Echelon, a manufacturer of smart grid infrastructure and devices; Gorlitz AG, a prominent supplier of telemetry solutions to European utilities; and SecureMeter/PRI, a leading manufacturer of smart meters.

Integrators supporting the effort include Eltel, one of the leading Infranet service companies in Europe; EVB Energy Solutions GmbH, one of the leading European service providers for power suppliers and network operators; Ferranti Computer Systems, a provider of business and IT solutions to energy and utilities markets; IBM; Telvent, a leading real-time IT solutions and information provider for a sustainable world; Thüga Metering Service AG, the metering services company of the largest municipal power and water group in Germany; and Ubitronix, a solution provider and system integrator of unified intelligent energy management systems.

Supporting utilities include Alliander NV, one of the largest utilities in the Netherlands; EnergyMidt, a Danish utility; Linz AG, an Austrian utility; Netbeheer Nederland, the Dutch grid operators association representing all the utilities operating in the Netherlands; NRGi, a Danish utility; SEAS-NV; and Vattenfall AB, a multi-national utility headquartered in Sweden with operations in Sweden, Finland, Poland and Germany.

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. With millions of devices deployed worldwide, OSGP brings field-proven reliability and scalability to the smart grid.

ESNA will be presenting more information on OSGP and ESNA’s standardization efforts in the Standardization & Interoperability session taking place Wednesday, September 22 starting at 2 PM at Metering Europe.

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 info@esna.org.