NIST Smart Grid and CPS Newsletter - January 2018

Table of Contents

• Upcoming Conference: Global City Teams Challenge’s Smart and Secure Cities and Communities Challenge (SC3) Kickoff Meeting and IES-City Framework Release Workshop (Feb. 6-8, 2018, Washington, D.C.)
• Smart Cities Highlighted at CES 2018
• Upcoming Meeting: IIoT Energy Forum (Feb. 9, 2018, McLean, Virginia)
• Upcoming Conference: Innovative Smart Grid Technologies (ISGT 2018) (Feb. 19-22, 2018, Washington, D.C.)
• Upcoming Conference and Workshop: Transactive Energy Systems (June 12-14, 2018, Cambridge, Massachusetts)
• Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) Update

Upcoming Conference: Global City Teams Challenge’s Smart and Secure Cities and Communities Challenge (SC3) Kickoff Meeting and IES-City Framework Release Workshop (Feb. 6-8, 2018, Washington, D.C.)

Over 150 smart city leaders are expected to gather in Washington in early February to launch the Smart and Secure Cities and Communities Challenge (SC3). This challenge, which is the focus for the 2018 Global City Teams Challenge (GCTC), is co-hosted by NIST and the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate (DHS S&T).

The goal of the conference is to encourage smart city/community and Internet of Things (IoT) stakeholders to build teams to address shared issues in various sectors such as transportation, public safety, utility, wireless, city data platforms/governance, and agriculture/rural. For this year’s challenge, organizers are encouraging participating teams to focus on cybersecurity and privacy as a first-order concern, along with existing GCTC goals of replicability, scalability, and sustainability. For more details about SC3, see this NIST News Release.

The conference will take place Feb. 6-8, 2018, at the FHI 360 Conference Center (1825 Connecticut Ave. NW) in Washington, D.C. As shown on the preliminary agenda and the preliminary list of speakers, the conference will feature both plenary presentations and six concurrent breakout sessions for specific sectors. The conference is free, but registration is required.

Following the two-day GCTC-SC3 event (Feb. 6-7) will be a one-day workshop (Feb. 8) on the release of a draft of the Internet-of-Things-Enabled Smart City (IES-City) Framework. This workshop will introduce the framework and its components (see agenda). After presenting the framework draft at the Feb. 8 workshop, NIST will begin a 60-day review period where all interested stakeholders are invited to provide comments.

The IES-City Framework offers a smart city application analysis tool that will permit smart city stakeholders to do early research related to smart city applications—their breadth, the readiness of cities’ infrastructures, and the benefits to citizens. For more details on the IES-City Framework project, please see the introductory white paper and slide deck.

In addition, on April 10, 2018, GCTC is partnering with Vanderbilt University, the University of Virginia, and DHS S&T to present SCOPE-GCTC, the Third International Workshop on Science of Smart City Operations and Platforms Engineering (SCOPE) in partnership with GCTC. The workshop will be co-located with CPS Week in Porto, Portugal. Members of the GCTC-SC3 community are encouraged to submit papers (submission deadline—Feb. 4, 2018).

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Smart Cities Highlighted at CES 2018

The annual CES show, held each January in Las Vegas, draws 170,000 visitors and is considered the premier showcase for new consumer-related technologies that will shape our future. This year, for the first time, CES devoted an entire exhibit area and programming track to smart cities. NIST’s Sokwoo Rhee, Associate Director of Cyber-Physical Systems Innovation, was a featured speaker in the Jan. 10 panel on “Cyber and Privacy in Connected Urban Ecosystems.”

Security and privacy issues in smart communities, including the case of the transportation sector, were actively discussed by Dr. Rhee’s panel. With the close link between many smart city applications and the safety, reliability, and resilience of critical infrastructures and essential services, designed-in cybersecurity and privacy protection in these applications are key requirements. The new 2018 Smart and Secure Cities and Communities Challenge described above will highlight best practices and innovative approaches in meeting these requirements.

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Upcoming Meeting: IIoT Energy Forum (Feb. 9, 2018, McLean, Virginia)

NIST is partnering with the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) to present the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) Energy Forum on Feb. 9, 2018. The event will explore how IIoT can be a driver behind new applications in the energy industry, and how the integration of different technologies, processes, and business models changes how we must address issues from cybersecurity to testbeds. NIST experts will join industry leaders to discuss requirements, gaps, and opportunities for leveraging new sensing and data capabilities to modernize grid infrastructure and operations. Panel topics will include: smart grid testbeds, cybersecurity, and grid standards and architecture. 

The agenda and registration link can be found on the IIC website. Hosted by The MITRE Corporation at its secure facility in McLean, Virginia, the event is free to attend but advanced registration is required. Registration closes for non-U.S. citizens on Jan. 24 at 5 p.m. EST, and for U.S. citizens on Jan. 31 at 5 p.m. EST.

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Upcoming Conference: Innovative Smart Grid Technologies (ISGT 2018) (Feb. 19-22, 2018, Washington, D.C.)

The Ninth Conference on Innovative Smart Grid Technologies (ISGT 2018), sponsored by the IEEE Power and Energy Society (PES), will be held on Feb. 19-22, 2018, at the Washington Hilton Hotel, in Washington, D.C. According to NIST’s Jerry FitzPatrick, who is the technical chair for the conference, the meeting will feature plenary sessions, panel sessions, technical papers, and tutorials. Speakers will include experts representing electric utilities, regulators, technology providers, academia, national laboratories, and federal and state governments.

NIST staff will be involved in the following panels and sessions:

• “Opening Session,” remarks by NIST’s Jerry FitzPatrick, Technical Chair of 2018 ISGT Conference, Tuesday, Feb. 20, 8:00 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.
• “Smart Grid Testing and Certification Needs and Challenges,” panel chaired by NIST’s Cuong Nguyen, Feb. 20, 10:45 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
• “Co-Simulation of Heterogeneous CPS Using HLA,” presentation by NIST’s Martin Burns, in panel on “Advances in Integrated System Planning,” Tuesday, Feb. 20, 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
• “Interoperability Testbed for Smart Sensors in Smart Grids,” presentation by NIST’s Eugene Song, in paper session on “Protection and Sensors,” Wednesday, Feb. 21, 10:40 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
• “NIST Transactive Energy (TE) Challenge–TE System Simulation Results for DER Integration on the Distribution Grid,” panel chaired by NIST’s David Holmberg, Wednesday, Feb. 21, 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

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Upcoming Conference and Workshop: Transactive Energy Systems (June 12-14, 2018, Cambridge, Massachusetts)

The GridWise Architecture Council (GWAC), in partnership with the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA), will convene the Fifth International Conference and Workshop on Transactive Energy Systems in Cambridge, MA, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), June 12-14, 2018. The theme for this year’s conference will be “Evolving Approaches for Implementing Transactive Energy.” NIST’s Dave Holmberg will give a presentation on results and lessons learned from the Transactive Energy Challenge. The Call for Papers is now available for download (abstract submission deadline—April 30, 2018).

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Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) Update

SEPA has over a dozen member working groups that hold virtual meetings monthly or quarterly. These groups cover a wide range of technical topics, and NIST staff members are involved as participants in a number of the groups and as leaders in four of the groups:

• Cybersecurity, chaired by NIST’s Nelson Hastings
• Testing and Certification, chaired by NIST’s Cuong Nguyen
• Transactive Energy, vice-chaired by NIST’s David Holmberg
• Home, Building, and Industry-to-Grid: The Building and Industry-to-Grid Subgroup is chaired by NIST’s David Holmberg. 

SEPA’s Grid Management Working Group will be hosting an open meeting on Jan. 22, 2018, related to requirements for Distributed Energy Resource Management Systems (DERMS). The meeting will be co-located with DistribuTECH in San Antonio, Texas, and registration is free and open to all DistribuTECH 2018 attendees. With the recent release of a draft document, DERMS Requirements, the working group now invites new industry participants from the utility and the vendor communities to review the draft and submit commentary.

Registration is now open for the 2018 Grid Evolution Summit (July 9-12, 2018, Washington, D.C.).

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