A smart grid is an electricity network that can integrate in a cost-efficient manner the behaviour and actions of all users connected to it (generators and/or consumers) in order to ensure economically efficient, sustainable power system with high levels of quality and security of supply and safety. Smart grids allow companies and households to produce electricity (for example – using photovoltaic panels or wind turbines) and sell it on to other consumers through existing networks.
In March 2011, the European Commission and EFTA issued the Smart Grid Mandate M/490 which was accepted by the three European Standards Organizations (ESOs), CEN, CENELEC and ETSI in June 2011. M/490 requests CEN, CENELEC and ETSI to develop a framework to enable ESOs to perform continuous standard enhancement and development in the smart grid field.
In order to perform the requested work, the ESOs combined their strategic approach and established in July 2011, together with the relevant stakeholders, the CEN-CENELEC-ETSI Smart Grid Coordination Group (SG-CG) being responsible for coordinating the ESOs reply to M/490.
In 2012, the SG-CG worked intensively to produce the following reports:
In addition, SG-CG produced a Framework Document which provides an overview of the activities. It describes how the different elements mentioned above fit together as to provide the consistent framework for smart grids, as requested by M/490.
End 2012, the Smart Grid Mandate M/490 was extended until end 2014. The objective of the extension was to allow the SG-CG to fine-tune the Smart Grid methodology developed in 2012 and to develop an extended set of standards supporting Smart Grid deployment in Europe.
End 2014, the CEN-CENELEC-ETSI Smart Grid Coordination Group finalized the following mandated reports:
These reports were sent to the CEN and CENELEC Technical Boards who approved their content early December 2014. The ETSI Board approved the reports end of December 2014.
The work done by the Group was continued after the closing of the mandate M/490 with the purpose to follow-up on the standardization gaps identified during the first phase of M/490 and to provide best practice examples on smart energy grid specific use cases in order to show the applicability of existing and upcoming standards.
In this context, two reports have been prepared by the Coordination Group to maintain transverse consistency and promote continuous innovation in the field of Smart Grids:
Smart Grid Set of Standards: Report 1 (PDF)
This report is the new release of the original ‘First set of standards’ and proposes an updated framework of standards which can support Smart Grids deployment in Europe. It provides a selection guide setting out, for the most common Smart Grid systems the relevant set of existing and upcoming standards to be considered, from CEN, CENELEC, ETSI and further from IEC, ISO, ITU or even coming from other bodies when needed. It also explains how these are able to be used, where, and for which purpose. Standardization gaps have been identified and the related standardization work program has been defined. The results of these activities will be included in future releases of this report.
Smart Grid Set of Standards: Report 2 (PDF)
In this report, security standardization specific to Smart Energy Grid and security standardization targeting generic standards are further monitored and analysed with the focus on two specific use cases: decentralized energy resource (DER) and substation automation. It shows the applicability and interrelationship between these two groups of standards. Furthermore, the Smart Grid Information Security approach has been followed to show the applicability of different standards on the selected, specific use cases for Smart Energy Grid deployments.
In 2017, the CG-SEG established the ‘Clean Energy Package’ working group to ensure that the European Standards Organizations support the implementation of the outcome of the European Commission proposals for new rules for consumer-centred clean energy transition – the Clean Energy for All Europeans package.
In this context, the working group prepared in 2018 a report aiming to address both the key legal propositions of the Clean Energy Package which are considered as most relevant for standardization as well as an initial assessment of priority topics with possible implications on CG-SEG deliverables and work programme. The content of this report was broadly based on the European Commission's proposal on the ‘Clean Energy for all Europeans Package’ from December 2016 (COM/2016/0860).
After all negotiations on the Clean Energy Package have been concluded in 2019, the ‘Clean Energy Package’ working group prepared an updated version of the Final Report (PDF).
This report has been approved by CEN and CENELEC Technical Boards in February 2020 and by ETSI Board in April 2020.
