In the November 13^th issue of the Smart Grid Newsletter, I reported on the Grid-Interop forum held in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  This event marks a watershed moment in the level of engagement of the GridWise™ Architecture Council with a growing Smart Grid community that is coming to appreciate the importance of interoperability to enabling the many transactions between electricity-related automation systems. 

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Major electricity consumer sectors joined electricity delivery experts, information technologists, and energy policy-makers to identify issues and obstacles to interoperability, methods and tools to make integration easier, and specific areas where alignment and agreements can be hammered out between experts in automation areas that need to interact.  Roundtable discussions covering Industry to Grid, Building to Grid, Home to Grid, Enterprise to Grid, and even Appliance to Grid interfaces produced proposals with identified champions to advance the cause in their respective areas.

Developing this cross-sector interoperability community has been a top priority of the GridWise Architecture Council.  Nurturing the seeds of advancement planted at Grid-Interop is an important objective in the coming year.  Accomplishing this goal requires continued interaction with the emerging Smart Grid community and resources that transcend the Architecture Council.

So how can you become involved?  Annually, the Council goes through a membership renewal process.  We are presently in the midst of a “Call for Candidates,” where we ask visible, respected, and influential champions of interoperability to submit applications to become members.  Membership is restricted to 13 people, and balance of representation across the stakeholder base is critical.  This year, 8 seats are up for renewal, and all members whose terms are expiring are interested in new 2 year terms.  Though their familiarity with the Council is advantageous, the Bylaws of the Council stipulate that roughly one quarter of the Council members are targeted to be new members, so please consider your submission to join the Council.

[an error occurred while processing this directive] The Council also meets quarterly in locations throughout the country.  These meetings are open to the public.  If you are interested in attending one of these sessions, please visit, http://www.gridwiseac.org/getinvolved/ and let us know. 

Lastly, the Council is involved in several events throughout the year.  These are forums where anyone interested in advancing interoperability concepts should seriously consider attending.  They include;

• GridWise Expo - in concert with ConnectivityWeek, 22-24 May 2008,

• GridWeek – scheduled 23-25 September 2008,

• Grid-Interop – look for a December 2008 announcement.

New events are also emerging based upon the activities coming out of the Grid-Interop action roundtables.  These include the B2G Summit, 21 January 2008 in New York (reported by Jack Mc Gowan GridWise, Demand Response and a Green AHR), as well as new events in the works, including a meeting for Industrial to Grid interoperation, and a meeting for Home to Grid interoperation.

We will keep you posted on these events in this publication and on the GridWise Architecture Council website.  Please hear this message as a call for arms and join us in the crusade to improve integration and enable an ever-smarter electricity system.

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