Interoperability is the elephant in the room that is the Smart Grid industry. As large companies, startups and utilities alike strive to create a cleaner, more efficient electrical grid -- deploying new technologies wherever they can -- it is becoming increasingly important for their devices and networks to be able to communicate and work together. Toward that end, leading smart meter and wireless networking provider Silver Spring Networks announced that its equipment can now integrate seamlessly with electrical substations made by Siemens.
Announced today at the GridWeek conference in Washington, D.C., the deal is similar to the one that Smart Grid network provider Trilliant and substation and power automation provider ABB unveiled yesterday. Both IBM and Cisco released similar news last week. IBM is bringing together third-party Smart Grid startups into an interoperable group by offering them a common software package, called SAFE, that provides them with basic business infrastructure. Cisco also recruited an impressive flock of companies into a Smart Grid "ecosystem" that will adopt and work off the same set of standards.
Substations are some of the oldest pieces of equipment in the aging electrical grid we have today. Allowing new technologies to speak with and control this legacy equipment, will revamp the ways they can be used to further Smart Grid initiatives. The companies have adopted standards specified by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
Both Silver Spring and Siemens were quick to say that the interoperability has only recently been tested with positive results. Neither company has plans to implement it with a specific utility -- rather, the announcement was made to let utilities know that they now have the option to deploy Silver Spring smart meters -- meters that wirelessly beam energy consumption data between utilities and their customers -- with systems including Siemens substations.
Silver Spring has been beating the drum on standards adoption and interoperability lately. And it makes sense -- it's the Smart Grid startup to watch these days, with fingers in smart metering, the mesh networks that connect meters to utilities, and now -- following its acquisition of GreenBox Technology yesterday -- consumer-facing home energy monitors. Its strategy is rightfully to adopt standards that will make its devices and systems as easy to integrate anywhere as possible.
The partnership is a boon for Siemens, one of the giants like Cisco and IBM trying to carve out a generous niche for itself in the Smart Grid arena. A long-time presence in the traditional transmission and distribution of power, any ties with Silver Spring will help it rebrand itself as a fresher, hipper contender in this area.
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