Canadian Smart Grid Standards Guideline For Utilities

Canadian Smart Grid Standards Guideline offers a framework for utilities and manufacturers to modernize electricity infrastructure, ensuring reliability, safety, efficiency, and interoperability with principles and criteria endorsed by CEA and Toronto Hydro.

Essential Takeaways

A national framework guiding utilities and vendors to modernize, integrate, and secure reliable smart grids.

Eight principles ensure reliability, safety, efficiency
Fifteen criteria guide adoption and integration
Supports interoperability and cyber-secure systems
Aligns utilities, manufacturers, and regulators
Backed by CEA and leaders like Toronto Hydro

The Canadian Electricity Association released a guideline for the selection and use of smart grid standards.

The new guideline is intended to provide a framework for electric utilities and other decision-makers in selecting standards related to modernizing electricity infrastructure across utilities and jurisdictions.

The guideline contains eight fundamental principles and fifteen elective criteria intended to assist manufacturers and users of smart grid technologies in developing high-tech distribution applications and integrating new and emerging technologies. The intent of the underlying principles is to ensure the continued reliability, safety and efficiency of the Canadian electric utility system.

Modernizing the electricity system will both influence and affect the electricity sector where improving the power grid remains a priority and the standards that are a fundamental part of utility operations.

"Canadian utilities are investing prudently in smart grid development efforts as the IESO calls for a smarter grid across Ontario as they begin to seize the opportunity to modernize the grid for the next generation" said Ivano Labricciosa, Chair of the CEA Smart Grid Standards Task Group and Vice President, Asset Management at Toronto Hydro. "Many utilities have been working on Smart Grid projects guided by the Smart Grid Roadmap to monitor, interface, interconnect, and leverage electronic technology to deliver improvements in grid reliability. These globally-recognized leading projects, however, require investment in and support for the development of recognized equipment and systems standards."