With the September 2009 release by the US Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) of the nation’s first draft Smart Grid framework, energy consuming companies should begin their consideration of how to adopt environmentally friendly technologies that are compatible with evolving NIST national energy efficiency, information management and system interoperability standards. Such standards are intended, in part, to address priorities identified by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) concerning bulk generation, transmission, distribution, markets, operations, service providers and customers. Once approved, FERC is charged with implementing these standards at the federal regulatory level to ensure Smart Grid functionality and interoperability in interstate transmission of electricity and in regional and wholesale electricity markets. Energy sector companies, in particular, must educate themselves about how to interface with and, if possible, participate in the development of these evolving standards as well as the administrative rulemaking process through which they will be implemented and enforced.

We specialize in guiding commercial and energy sector companies through the lacunae of these new initiatives.