New interfaces will need to be developed, and existing MultiSpeak® interfaces will need to be enhanced, in order completely to achieve the goals of the smart grid. Figure 3 shows detail of the interfaces that will be required for the eventual smart grid; detail is provided in Table 2. In order to be able to carry the ultimate objectives of the smart grid as currently visualized by the industry, all of the application interfaces shown in Figure 3 and described in Table 2 will eventually need to be developed and integrated at a particular utility.

Table 2 gives detailed information on all of the interfaces anticipated to be needed for the smart grid for enterprise application interoperability. Column 1 lists each application that is shown in Figure 3 along with its corresponding application number. Column 2 shows the detailed interfaces that each application has with other applications; Column 3 identifies each of those detailed interfaces using the numbering scheme developed and used in Figure 3. Note that some of the numbers in Column 3 are shaded and others are unshaded. Shaded boxes are those for which existing MultiSpeak standards currently exist.

Those which are unshaded show interfaces that will need to be developed for eventual use in meeting the needs of the smart grid. All interfaces, existing or to be developed, will also need to be iteratively updated to reflect needed refinements or to harmonize with complementary standards as thes standards landscape develops and as the industry more completely defines the smart grid vision.

Table 2 - Enterprise Application Interfaces

Shaded boxes are those for which existing MultiSpeak standards currently exist.

*Shaded boxes are those for which existing MultiSpeak standards currently exist.

MultiSpeak: Working Toward Standards Harmonization

The MultiSpeak Initiative has a strong commitment to the use of well understood and widely-adopted standards and protocols as is evidenced by the fact that MultiSpeak web services make use of (i) XML Schema, (ii) Simple Object Access Protocol V1.1 (SOAP) [2], (iii) Web Services Description Language V1.1 [3], (iv) Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) V1.1 [4] and (v) Extensible Markup Language (XML) [5]. Further, within the standard itself, MultiSpeak already incorporates such standards as; (i) ANSI C12.19/MC19 [6] for revenue metering end device tables and (ii) the Open Geospatial Consortium GML [7] for exchange of location-based information addressing geographic data requirements. The MultiSpeak reference architecture is based on the Basic Profile 1.1 (Profile), which was developed by the Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) [8].

MultiSpeak expects to continue to push toward standardized interface definitions with other standards development organizations (SDOs) as the smart grid evolution continues. For example, NIST SP 1108 identifies 75 existing standards that are applicable or likely to be applicable to the ongoing development of the smart grid. A significant subset of those will directly impact the work on MultiSpeak. Considerable recent efforts have been to investigate existing standards and interfaces that might play a role during the development and refinement of MultiSpeak interface designs. MultiSpeak personnel are in constant contact with (i) representatives of other Standards Development Organizations (SDOs), (ii) Priority Action Plan (PAP) committees, (iii) the Transmission and Distribution Domain Expert Working Group (DEWG), (iv) the NIST Smart Grid Interoperability Panel, and (v) other sources of standards development activities.