Tuesday, January 19, 2010

NIST Smart Grid Interoperability Standards Roadmap

NIST published (pdf) their 'final' list of Smart Grid Standards yesterday. Big money is to be made or lost if your technology is on the list or not.

The big news is Homegrid/G.hn has been demoted and is not longer on the list. Last September, Homegrid's press release trumpeted "G.hn Approved by NIST for Use in Smart Grid Applications", based on a draft of the NIST list. Will we soon see a humbled retraction "G.hn disapproved by NIST for Use in Smart Grid Applications"?

It is a huge question how G.hn got on the NIST list to start with. At the time as the G.hn standard was only specified a broken and incomplete PHY. Today it is still missing the MAC (first draft will be approved in June 2010 and expected amendments and corrigendum six months after). G.hn is still at least a year from certified and interoperable chips.

So who sold, the now embarrassed, NIST managers a bill of goods? Do they have any credibility left?

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